


Anchors

by twoheartedalien



Series: Weather the Storm [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Bottom Widow, F/F, Finally getting sexy up in chapter 17, Kinda Fluffy, Sombra is the best wingman, Symbra but in the background, Talon Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Talon!Athena, Talon!Winston, Top Tracer, lena is very gay, talon au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-01-07 04:08:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 62,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12225453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoheartedalien/pseuds/twoheartedalien
Summary: After Lena 'Tracer' Oxton goes missing during the launch of the Slipstream, she begins reappearing around the infamous Talon sniper, the Widowmaker. Lena has no control over it, much to Widowmaker's dismay.





	1. Little Annoyance

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! My name is Levi and I post work under this pen name. To find out ways to support me or to commission a piece of fanfiction you can contact me through this: https://twoheartedalien2-0.tumblr.com/supportme  
> You can also just follow me on tumblr too :) Thanks for reading my work!

Widowmaker sighed as she peeled off her dust covered catsuit and dumped it into the hamper in the corner of her room. She had just spent the last seventy-two hours in Egypt on a mission and she was in desperate need of a shower and sleep. Even with all the modifications that Talon had made to her body to increase her endurance, three days in the dusty desert environment without a shower or more than two hours sleep at a time was exhausting.

She glanced at Widow’s Kiss propped up against the wall as she stretched and strode towards the shower.She would have to disassemble it and put it into its carry case at some point, but the shower was calling to her first. She turned on the shower, letting the water run to heat up. Widowmaker grimaced at her reflection in the mirror, reaching up to remove the tie from her hair. She ran her fingers through it, tutting in disgust as she looked at her hand. The dust really _did_ get everywhere.

She took her time to soak under the water, even using a body wash that Sombra had insisted she purchase that apparently relaxed the muscles. Relief sunk into her mind as she thought about how unless something were to go wrong (or Sombra were to giftwrap Doomfist’s gauntlet _again_ ), she would have at least a few days to herself before returning to the field again. While missions offered her the thrill of the kill that she always sought out, it was also nice to spend some time doing other things.

It was in the middle of disassembling Widow’s Kiss that she was given a fright. The sound of someone desperately gasping for air filled the silence in her room and caused her to drop her partially assembled rifle into her lap. In the middle of the room was the slumped over body of a small woman wearing what looked to be a blue flight suits. The woman looked around the room, one hand on the floor propping herself up on her knees and the other grasping at her chest as she examined her surroundings, her unruly locks moving with each turn of her head. Her brown eyes met Widowmaker’s, narrowing as the woman examined her sitting on her bed wrapped up only in a towel.

“Can you see me?” The woman asked, eyebrows drawn together. Widowmaker simply narrowed her eyes at her, confused.

“Of course I can see you. What are you doing in my room?” Widowmaker leaned back, tilting her body away from the woman as she jumped up from where she had been kneeling on the floor.

“Luv, you’re the first person I’ve ever appeared in front of that can see me! First person I’ve spoken to in I don’t know _how_ long.” She placed her hands on her hips, head whipping around as she took in Widowmaker’s room, “What month is it?”

“April.” Widowmaker replied, still perplexed as to how and why this woman had suddenly appeared.

“Oh no. I’ve been gone two months then!” The woman dragged her hands through her hair, tugging at the strands as if she planned to tear them out by the root.

“What. And I’ll ask again, _why are you in my room?_ ”

“Sorry, sorry..” The woman held up her hands, eyes darting to the partially assembled rifle in her lap. “I was meant to fly the Slipstream for Overwatch, teleporting jet and all that. Well, I did fly it for a bit, and then something went wrong - lots of blue sparks and well…  here I am. I don’t really have control over this, I’m sorry - I keep appearing all around the place but luv, you’re the first person I’ve been able to speak to since the accident!”

“You worked for Overwatch?” Widowmaker narrowed her eyes, hand automatically reaching for the disassembled parts of Widow’s Kiss that had been placed beside her on her bed.

“Yeah, well I did but there’s not much I can do now. I guess I’m sort of just waiting for them to rescue me now, hopefully it’s soon. I’ve been going crazy not being able to talk to anyone for what turns out to be two months but it feels so much longer and not at the same time.” Widowmaker  watched on as the girl began rambling about her time in what she called the ‘Slipstream’ and being lost to time. She did talk an awful lot, only stopping her rambling in order to take a deep breath and drop an ‘I’m Lena by the way’ before she disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared. Widowmaker blinked and stared at the empty spot where the woman- Lena - had just been.How perplexing.

 

Widowmaker sat at her desk, disassembling and cleaning Widow’s Kiss, trying to relieve some of the tension in her body brought on by a particularly strenuous mission. As she sat there, running through her post-mission ritual, she considered the strange occurrence in her room the other night. Part of her wanted to believe it was her sleep deprived brain conjuring up an image but she couldn’t imagine why her mind would come up with a woman like _that_ at any point. She pushed away the thought of informing her Talon superiors about her appearing in her room that night, assuming it would be simply the one off. She, Lena, had said that she was appearing in many different places. It would be unlikely that she would show up again in the same place.

Widowmaker carried on with her routine as per usual, letting Lena drop from her thoughts, moving around the base between training and practice at the gun range. Even though she had a few days rest until her next field mission and training was no longer made mandatory by her superiors, it pleased her to maintain a routine.

It wasn’t until three days after Lena’s initial appearance in her room that the girl bothered her again, interrupting her routine. Widowmaker had laid down on her bed, intending to go to sleep when the sound of Lena talking filled the room. She instantly recognised who it was from the accent, it had been hard to ignore the first time she heard it and was just as annoying the second time. The girl was continuing from where she had been cut off three days ago as if she had never even left the room. She only ceased when she realised that Widowmaker was not how she left her last, instead of sitting on her bed in a towel, she was lying in bed under the covers and in a nightgown.

“Oh, sorry, luv. Did I disappear again?” Lena laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of her neck. Widowmaker simply raised a dark eyebrow at her. “What’s your name anyway?” Lena asked, sitting down cross-legged and tilting her head in curiosity.

Widowmaker gave a small scoff at the question.

“I am the Widowmaker. You worked for Overwatch, non? Have you not heard of me?” Lena shrugged..

“They took me on as a test pilot, I wasn’t a field agent. Tell me about yourself?”

Widowmaker stared at Lena for a few long moments before giving in to answering her question.

“I am a sniper for Talon,” she offered lamely, purposefully not adding extra detail.

“Talon… Talon. Wait, you’re one of the bad guys? Are we in a Talon base at the moment?” Lena’s eyes widened, and she began turning around, having a look at the room again like she had the last time as she asked her questions.

“Yes, though I question your use of ‘bad guys’. It is not so black and white as your precious Overwatch would have you believe.”

“What would you lot call yourselves then?” Lena asked  raised her eyebrow at her.

“I do not care, I just do as I am told. The philosophy of Talon is not of my concern.” Widowmaker tugged on the top of her bedsheets, bringing them up to her chest, expecting that to be the end of the conversation as a brief silence settled between them.

“So, you’re cool with working for an organisation without knowing what their plans are?” Widowmaker let out a low grunt of frustration at this _annoyance_ continuing to ask her questions.

“I have already told you that I do not care. Why would you ask me again?” She watched as Lena took a seat on the floor beside her bed, sitting cross-legged.

“Because I’m curious, luv. I’ve never appeared in front of someone a second time and I might as well entertain myself while I’m here, no one else seems to be able to hear me. So you’re a sniper, what’s that like?” Widowmaker sighed and rolled over, facing the wall so her back was towards the girl sitting on her floor. “Oi! Don’t ignore me, I get enough of that already.”

Widowmaker scoffed.

“I do not know what you would want me to say. I am a sniper, I shoot people from a distance. There is not much more to it.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty.”

“You’ve got a nice accent, are you French?” Widowmaker rolled her eyes.

“Oui.”

“Oooh. What part of France are you from?”

“Annecy.”

“Is it nice there?”

“I do not remember.”   

“How do you not remember?”

“I do not have memories of before I joined Talon.”

“Why’s that?”

“Tais-toi! Are you _ever_ quiet?” Widowmaker sat up in bed, propping herself up on her elbows and levelling a sharp glare at the girl on the floor.. Lena shrunk slightly under her gaze, her shoulders rolling in. “I was not aware that the British were so opposed to the simple concept of sleep,” she growled.

Lena’s eyebrows drew together in confusion for a few moments as her eyes examined Widowmaker lying in her bed until her face lit up, connecting the dots. “Ohhhhhhhhh, so _that’s_ why you’re in bed?”

“It is nearly _midnight_ and I would like to sleep, so _s’il vous plait_.”

“Oh okay, do you mind if I just sit here then? I... can’t really do anything else,” Lena chewed her lip as she looked up. Widowmaker let herself drop back onto the mattress, pulling the bed sheets up and over her shoulders, still facing Lena.

“Do as you wish, so long as you are quiet and I can sleep.” There was a small giggle as Widowmaker closed her eyes.

While Lena didn’t continue speaking or asking questions, the girl _could not_ sit still or stay completely quiet. Widowmaker could hear the girl fidgeting and humming to herself much to her dismay. She would never admit to anyone that she fell asleep just fine despite Lena’s presence. When she woke up the following day, she had found the girl had disappeared just like the last time, leaving nothing behind to suggest she had even been there at all.  

 

The third time Lena appeared in front of her, Widowmaker had just returned to her room after a less than stellar afternoon at the gun range. She had picked up a tray of food and brought it back with her to eat, deciding she was certainly not in the mood to sit with the regular Talon agents, not without having to disable or kill one of them anyway. There weren’t any new agents for her to make examples of, her room would be more interesting. Widowmaker harshly stabbed at her food on her tray, nearly choking on a piece of potato when a bright blue light deposited Lena beside her.

It had been just over a week since the last time that Lena had appeared when Widowmaker was trying to sleep, she had finally begun to let herself believe that the annoying Brit was gone for good until just now. Lena hadn’t even said anything yet and she was already annoyed, just her presence in the corner of her eye reminded her of the bombardment of questions from last week.. Once she had cleared her throat of the food that she had choked on when Lena appeared, she looked at the girl directly who simply had a massive grin on her face.

“Guess I’m back again, luv!” Widowmaker rolled her eyes and went back to eating her dinner, choosing to ignore Lena.

“Aww c’mon, don’t be going back to that again. I know you can hear me.” Lena put her hands on her hips, and leaned forward over the desk. It surprised Widowmaker when she realised the Brit didn’t cast a shadow.

_Merde._ _Fine._ What do you want to annoy me with today?” She leaned back in her chair, bringing another forkful of food up to her mouth.

“What’re you eating?” Widowmaker raised an eyebrow at the hungry look on Lena’s face.

“I am eating whatever Talon has offered today, it appears to be pasta but one cannot really be sure with who they hire to make meals.” Widowmaker paused, letting out a small sigh, “Do you want some?”

“Yes, please! It’s been _months_ since I ate anything.” She turned the fork around in her hand, offering it to Lena.

The fork just passed through Lena’s outstretched hand and fell to the floor as she let go of it, expecting it to be taken from her. Widowmaker frowned at her fork now having been dirtied but Lena’s expression could only be described as pure dejection. She furrowed her brows as she watched Lena continue to stare at the fork where it lay on the carpet.

Widowmaker tutted before speaking, “I will have to get myself a new fork.” Lena mumbled an apology under her breath, her change in demeanour causing Widowmaker to tilt her head to the side in confusion. “What is the matter? You are normally so talkative.”

Lena looked up at her with a broken look on her face. “I can’t even touch anything! I haven’t touched anything or anyone in over two months.” She pursed her lips in response to that, she had never been very good at comforting others.

“Would it make you feel better if I let you ask me as many questions as you like?” Widowmaker simply didn’t know any other way to get the girl to go back to her annoying self, it was preferable to having the girl be upset or, god forbid, cry while she was stuck here.  She breathed in relief as the offer seemed to perk up the girl.

“Oh! Yes please. What do you do in your free time? Y’know, when you’re not shooting at people.” Lena asked with a slight giggle.

“I come back here, I run training drills and go to the gun range in order to keep myself bus-” She was interrupted by Lena making a snoring sound, tilting her head back to look at the ceiling.

“That’s so boring, luv! Do you do anything more interesting? I mean, you’re real gorgeous, I’m sure you could easily go pick up a man, or a woman, if you wanted to. Would make for a better time than running drills.” She scoffed in reaction to that, what an absurd idea.

“Non, I have no interest. People are annoying and messy. I prefer to shoot at them from great heights.”

“Wow, you really do live up to your name and being a sniper. You really don’t do anything else?”

“Non, I have no need.”

“You’re so boring, luv. You need to find a hobby that doesn’t involve shooting people. Maybe that’s why you don’t like me so much, you’re not into having fun.” With a roll of her eyes, Widowmaker stood up from her desk and walked over to where she stored Widow’s Kiss.

“Non, I do not like you because you are _annoying_.” She replied, pulling the manual for her weapon out from the protective case and returning to her seat at her desk. She opened the manual for Widow’s Kiss to the first page and gave Lena one last warning look, though, she didn’t know what to expect from her. It didn’t seem like the girl had any control over how and when she appeared and disappeared.

“What’s that, luv?”

“It is the manual for my rifle, I have it memorised but I figure I might educate you on something. I will read it to you and _you_ will be _quiet_.” Widowmaker cleared her throat and began reading from the open page, seeing from the corner of her eye that Lena was staring at her in disbelief.

“You’re not seriously going to make me listen to this, are you?” She ignored Lena, continuing to read out loud. Lena let out a whine. “C’mon luv, I’m sorry I called you boring!” Widowmaker ignored Lena’s continued protests and apologies until the girl finally went silent, taking a seat next to her on the floor and just listening to her read. It had taken almost twenty minutes for Lena to finally give in, only making noise each time she would fidget. Obviously the girl had no ability to sit still for a single second but at least she stopped talking. If she kept quiet, maybe she would be able to get something done that afternoon. Widowmaker tried not to expect much from her.


	2. Kitten Club

Widowmaker let out a frustrated grunt as more dust found its way into her eye, rubbing harshly at eyelids to clear it. Any mission that required her to go to a dusty, arid climate made her wish that Talon had come up with a modification to keep it from irritating her eyes, her recon visor only did so much. She hadn’t expected to return to the desert so soon, it was never pleasant with the heat being so overwhelming. It was a harsh climate for anybody but it was something else for her with the changes made to her core temperature.

She squinted, her finger caressing the trigger, bracing herself and absorbing the kick as she shot an enemy agent clear through the head. 

Widowmaker was perched on the corner of a roof of a high rise, peering over the edge with Widow’s Kiss and lying in the prone position. It had been a relatively slow paced mission so far, she had only been issued with the instruction to wait here at the choke point as the other Talon agents did their work, to shoot anyone who came by but do nothing else. She let out an aggravated sigh as she continued to watch the world below through her scope, her lip curling as Talon agents scurried across like ants.

It took several minutes of nothing before a new victim entered her sights, an enemy combatant that had entered the choke point on his own.  _ How foolish _ . She began lining up to take her shot, frowning as she felt the air behind her change, raising the small hairs on the back of her neck.  _ What... _ .

“Whatcha looking at?” 

She flinched, and the shot went wide.  _ Merde. _ She  _ knew _ that voice.  _ M _ a _petite exaspération_. Widowmaker looked away from the scope, narrowing her eyes at the girl now kneeling next to her.

“Is it not enough that you annoy me while I am alone? Must you bother me while I am on missions as well?” Lena let out a giggle, and Widowmaker’s eye twitched.  _ The audacity. If only she knew the fate that befell others foolish enough -  _

“So, who’re you taking shots at, luv?” Her thoughts were interrupted as Lena peered over the edge, trying to glimpse the ground below as though it would give her a clue as to what was going on. All it did was leave Widowmaker wanting to press her hand into the middle of her back and watch her fall. She sighed. _ That  _ fantasy wasn’t possible with the way the girl seemed to not be completely physically there.

“Overwatch canon fodder. No one worth any particular interest or note.” Widowmaker raised an eyebrow when she heard Lena humming to herself, as if she were considering the information she had just given her. It was a few moments before the girl spoke again.

“How long’s it been since I last saw you?”

“Almost two weeks.” Lena let out a long, dejected sigh.

“Hey luv, can I ask a favour?” Widowmaker turned her head, looking over her shoulder to make direct eye contact with Lena. She was hoping to convey how disinterested she was in doing this  _ annoyance _ a favour.

“That depends. What is it?”

“Could you collect newspapers for me? Like, in between me showing up around you, can you collect them so you can tell me what’s going on? It’d be nice to know what I’m missing.” Widowmaker considered that, tapping her trigger finger along the side of Widow’s Kiss. As she was about to reply, the girl disappeared again.

It was her shortest appearance yet.

 

Even though she had originally intended to refuse Lena’s request, Widowmaker found herself collecting newspapers anyways. Talon usually left copies of newspapers in the cafeteria and in the smaller break rooms around base. On the first day after that mission, Widowmaker had picked up a newspaper on her way out of the cafeteria with her breakfast in hand, intending to read it for her own interest. Usually, when she had finished reading, she would toss the paper into her bin - however this time, she hesitated, grumbling under her breath as she tossed it on her desk instead..

This continued to happen each time she would get her breakfast and return to her room in order to eat alone, and each time Widowmaker would glare at the pile as she tossed the latest copy onto it.  _ It will give me some quiet when Lena shows up, _ she reasoned with herself. 

Widowmaker collected the newspapers for six days before Lena turned up again, this time materializing beside her just after she had finished her breakfast and was preparing to collect her gear for training.

“Ah, you are back again.” Widowmaker’s tone made it clear that she was no longer surprised by Lena turning up at random times.

“Again?” Lena’s face twisted in confusion, “I was just talking to you on that rooftop... and here I am in your room again. How long’s it been since we talked?”

“Six days.” 

Lena’s shoulders slumped forward at that, and there was a minute of silence between them as Lena looked around, before she spotted the newspapers lying on the desk. She perked up and gestured towards them.

“Oh! I see you got me some newspapers. Would you mind reading them out to me, luv? Can’t really hold them myself.” Lena wiggled her fingers and offered Widowmaker a cheesy smile. Widowmaker huffed and held back her back quips about it not being her problem and reached forward, slipping out the oldest paper from underneath the pile.

“This is the paper from the fourth of May.” She murmured, just loud enough for Lena to hear as the girl sat down on the floor, staring up at her as she read. Widowmaker began with the date, the major front page headlines and the articles attached and then moved onto reading out the smaller articles included. She continued reading until she heard a small whine from the girl sitting on the floor. “What is it now?” Lena really couldn’t be quiet.

“Can you just read me the date and headlines? The rest of it’s pretty boring.” Widowmaker scoffed and rolled her eyes but still acquiesced, slipping out the next paper from the pile. She noticed the way the girl seemed to relax, sitting still and actually remaining quiet as she read out the dates of each paper and their headlines. It confused her that this information seemed to soothe Lena somehow. But, more importantly, it kept her  _ quiet. _ Looked like she’d be collecting more papers.

 

As Lena’s appearances became more frequent, Widowmaker was inclined to agree with her about the newspapers being boring - it was tiring to read it to her even when she was asked to cut it back to the date and major headlines. It spurred her to start looking for other things that might interest Lena  _ without _ boring herself to death. Widowmaker didn’t know much about her interests before Talon, but she certainly had not been in much need to find reading material in her time with them.

Talon gave her enough free reign to leave the base in disguise if she wanted to, though she had never really taken the opportunity. This is why when Widowmaker made an attempt to leave the underground levels of the base in which she trained and slept, Sombra decided to make her presence known.

“Where are you going, arana?” 

Widowmaker stopped in her tracks, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before letting it out. It was bad enough that she had to deal with Lena, Sombra was even  _ worse. _ She knew  _ exactly  _ how to rub her the wrong way.

“Out.” She answered curtly, hoping against hope that it would be enough to deter Sombra from poking her nose in further. 

“Aw, don’t be like that. Where’s my favorite spider going?” 

Widowmaker picked up her pace as she walked through the halls, heading towards the main entrance of the building. If Sombra was going to follow her around, she might as well make it difficult for her smaller legs to keep up.

“Somewhere that is none of your business.”

“So I see, amiga. I’m just curious, you see. You’ve never gone out in public since I’ve been here. Come to think of it, you’ve also been collecting a bunch of newspapers lately. Is there something you want to tell me?” Widowmaker looked over her shoulder at Sombra who was just a few steps behind her, narrowing her golden eyes. She stopped for a brief moment.

“Non.” She resumed her quick pace, reaching the foot of the main staircase.

“It’s going to be that way then? Alright, tell me about the girl who keeps appearing in your room. How long has that been going on?” Widowmaker stilled halfway up the staircase, turning partially to face Sombra, making sharp eye contact. She didn’t need to even ask how Sombra had gotten her information, it was obvious that she would have been watching her. 

“She is an annoyance, much like you. She comes and goes, appears at unpredictable times and disappears again later. I do not know why she keeps appearing near me, she just does.” Widowmaker began clenching her fingers tightly around the staircase railing. She didn’t like being cornered or questioned, certainly not by  _ Sombra _ .

“Does this girl have a name?” Widowmaker found herself narrowing her eyes at Sombra yet again.

“Her name is Lena.” Sombra made a curious noise in the back of her throat before giving Widowmaker a theatrical bow and heading back down the steps, leaving her alone once again. She had been watching Widowmaker with curious eyes the entire time they had spoke and whatever she had said had satisfied her curiosity, thankfully.

 

Later that day, a store clerk watched on as Widowmaker entered through the front day, walking with a strangely stiff posture. He kept his eyes on her as she slowly made her way around, eyes scanning the shelves and reading the covers of the magazines resting on them. The air Widowmaker gave off made him uncomfortable, he didn’t really want to ask if she needed help but with the way she seemed to not know what she was looking for, the store clerk decided to gather the courage to do it anyway. 

“Miss, do you need anything? Any help finding what you’re looking for?” He did his best to offer a warm smile, hoping to fight off the chill he felt by being near her.

“I require magazines.”

“Yes- well- What kind of magazines are you looking for?” He stumbled over his words a bit, confused by her vague reply. 

Widowmaker turned in the spot where she stood, staring once more at the magazines on the shelves, a helpless look beginning to take over her face before the empty expression returned. Once she had made up her mind, she narrowed her eyes at the store clerk. 

“One of everything will do.” He drew his eyebrows together in confusion.

“One… One of everything? Like, absolutely everything?” She gave a slight scoff, fixing him with a glare. 

“Oui.” 

“I… Uh… Okay. Just one moment.” It took the store clerk almost ten minutes in order to gather a copy of every magazine in the store, having to get a box out from the back for Widowmaker to be even able to carry them all home. He continued to watch on in confusion as she left, satisfied with her purchase before turning to another customer that had been waiting patiently throughout the exchange. 

“Am I dreaming? She just bought hundreds of dollars worth of magazines.” He gave a slight laugh, still in disbelief. 

 

Widowmaker kept the box in the corner of her room, waiting for the next time Lena would appear. She had continued collecting newspapers every morning from the cafeteria as she got breakfast, adding it to her routine.

It took four days before Widowmaker finally got to use the magazines at all. Lena appeared late at night just minutes before she had planned to slip into bed and go to sleep for the night. She appeared sitting cross-legged on the floor near the desk, exactly where she had been when she disappeared the last time. Widowmaker simply raised an eyebrow at her, grabbing the papers off her desk and dragging the box of magazines out of the corner without saying a word.

“What’s that, luv?” Lena watched with curious wide eyes as Widowmaker took a seat on the floor beside her - something she hadn’t done before - and opened the box, revealing all the  magazines.

“You said that the newspapers were boring. I have found something else.”

Widowmaker started with the newspapers that she had collected since Lena was last in her room, almost two weeks ago. She went through them quickly, reading out the dates and the front page articles to Lena who seemed to relax slightly as she spoke. Once she was done, she dropped the last newspaper to the floor beside her and began pulling out some of the magazines from the box.

“It looks like you bought every magazine in the store, luv.”

“Oui.” She replied sharply, picking up what seemed to be a fashion magazine of some kind. She got through a few different magazines, skimming through in order to find anything that looked appealing.

After the fifth magazine, Lena let out a low groan. “I know I said the newspapers were boring, but these aren’t much better.” Widowmaker tiredly tossed the magazine aside, rolling her shoulders as she did so. She had to agree, they really were quite dry. 

 

“There anything more interesting in there?” Lena asked, popping up from the floor and peering down into the box. 

She gave Lena a slight shrug of her shoulders before reaching into the box again and digging around, hoping the girl would spot something that interested her. A sharp cough made her dart her eyes upwards, and caught a spectacular blush spreading through Lena’s cheeks.

She furrowed her brow in confusion at the expression on Lena’s face, unsure what she could possibly be embarrassed about, following Lena’s gaze, until she saw -  _ Oh. _

“Not exactly what I meant by being more interesting, luv.” The blush on Lena’s face spread to her ears as Widowmaker pulled the magazine out of the box  _ (Kitten Club - The finest pussies around!) _ . 

“Widowmaker?” Lena squeaked as Widowmaker began flipping through the pages, but her embarrassment didn’t stop her from leaning over to have a look at the pictures.

Widowmaker tilted her head to the side curiously, she hadn’t even seen anything like this before and couldn’t remember if she had when she wasn’t Widowmaker. Lena cleared her throat when she flipped to a page containing a photograph of a fully nude woman contorting in an odd pose.

“Would it not be uncomfortable to stand this way?” She looked up at Lena who had her eyes glued to the paper, her cheeks still a light pink.

“I.. Uhh… I dunno, luv. I guess so.” Lena murmured, still distracted by the content of the magazine, making Widowmaker raise an amused eyebrow. She flipped another page and Lena let out a slight giggle. “This one’s got a nice bum. Reminds me a bit of yours, actually!”

_ Petit-feu insolent! _

Widowmaker rolled up the magazine and smacked Lena over the head with it which caused her to cry out, reaching up to cradle her head while giggling hysterically.

“Stop it. Stop laughing!” Widowmaker whacked at Lena repeatedly, her own face warm.

“Hey - ow, stop it! That kinda hurts! Wait… that hurts?”

Widowmaker’s face twisted in confusion as Lena stopped laughing and reached forward, putting her hand on her bicep.

“I can feel stuff! Holy  _ fuck.  _ I shouldn’t be able to.” The hand on Widowmaker’s bicep began moving up and down, rubbing along the exposed skin, trailing down and tracing the broken lines of her tattoo. Lena jerked her hand away when she noticed the expression on her face and murmured an apology.  “Maybe I won’t disappear this time, luv. Never been able to touch anything or anyone since this whole thing happened.” A grin grew on her face as the pair went back to looking through the magazines.

It was another two hours later that Lena disappeared again.


	3. Mistakes and Cuddles

The magazines, in the long term, turned out to be a less than worthwhile purchase. It had been a great idea in theory - but all it lead to was more whining from the annoyance. She certainly agreed with Lena on the magazines not being all that interesting ( _besides_ the pornographic ones that she had accidentally picked up, not that Lena believed her when she insisted that she hadn’t asked for them specifically).

It was only two appearances later that the pair ended up giving up trying to go through the box of magazines - they had very quickly ran out of content that wasn’t completely insufferable to sit through. When they had finally finished sorting through them all, they sat in silence for a few moments as they wondered what to do with their time next.

“Hey Widowmaker,” Lena started, watching as Widowmaker began packing away the magazines into the box in order to throw them out later. Widowmaker simply made a noise of acknowledgement, encouraging her to continue.

“Do you own any books at all?”

“I have not had any need to so far so no,” She answered, closing the flaps of the box.

“Well, d’you think you could get some copies of Harry Potter to read? I mean, if I’m gonna be showing up like this all the time, you could read them out to me. I guess even if you’d read them before Talon, you wouldn’t remember.” Lena gave her a pleading look, her big brown eyes staring directly into Widowmaker’s before she drew her hands together in front of herself as if she were praying. She raised an eyebrow at the girl as she heard her whine ‘please’.

“Fine. As long as you stop saying please.” Lena pumped both of her fists up in the air. Widowmaker stared at her, perplexed about how any book could be interesting enough for a reaction like that.

“You won’t regret it, luv. I promise.” She simply rolled her eyes in response, giving a slight scoff as she began pushing the box back into the corner for now.

 

There weren’t many things that Widowmaker felt strongly about, but having her own bathroom attached to her room on base was one of them. Initially she had been given a regular room once she was allowed to wander around the base alone and had to shower in the shared facilities, but after insistent and increasingly threatening demands on her part, they gave her one of the few personal quarters that had its own bathroom.

It was in the midst of a long shower, a hard earned one after a long afternoon at the gun range, that Lena made her next appearance. Widowmaker didn’t even notice that she was standing in her bathroom until she turned to reach for her shampoo. Golden eyes met brown, and they both froze. A lovely bright red blush bloomed across Lena’s face, spreading across her ears and down her neck.

“I… I… Uh…” Lena struggled to form words as her eyes trailed down Widowmaker’s body. Widowmaker raised an eyebrow as she watched the girl struggle. She certainly wasn’t shy about her body, she had no need to be, and it didn’t seem to help Lena when she didn’t reach down to cover herself.

“How long have you been standing there?” She asked dryly.

“Ah… A little bit.” Lena managed to squeak out, whipping her head downwards and staring at her toes. Widowmaker watched in amusement, folding her arms. It surprised her how much delight she took from Lena’s reaction.

“If I knew that seeing me naked would keep you quiet, chérie, I would have done it much sooner.” Widowmaker purred, a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. Lena only flushed even more before letting out an undignified squeak, disappearing out of the bathroom. She chuckled to herself as she watched her go.

Widowmaker quickly finished up her shower. Usually, she would take her time and enjoy soaking under the water but this time she had something to entertain her waiting for her outside. She decided to give Lena a little relief by keeping the towel wrapped around herself when she re-entered her room. Lena was sitting on the edge of her bed, the deep crimson blush on her face had faded into more of a light pink.

She decided to take a seat on the edge of the bed beside her, smirking at the way that Lena averted her eyes, suddenly taking great interest in the carpet. Her sluggish heart rate picked up at the way Lena squirmed under her direct attention.

“I thought you might disappear out of embarrassment but alas, here you are.” Lena’s eyes picked up at that, the two of them finally making eye contact for the first time since Widowmaker had spotted her.

“Oi! It’s not like I can help it. Can’t control when I come and go.” Widowmaker smirked at the slight pout on Lena’s face, bringing her hand up to tilt back her chin, using her thumb to tease long her bottom lip. She felt almost warm at the whimper Lena let out.

After a few moments, Widowmaker drew her hand back and instead began walking her fingers up Lena’s thigh. Lena squeezed her eyes shut, the deep crimson colour from earlier returning to her cheeks, drawing a chuckle out of Widowmaker.

“I remember you enjoyed my ‘bum’, chérie, did you get a good look?” She moved her hand back from Lena’s thigh to push against her chest, forcing her back onto the mattress. Lena stared up at her with wide eyes but doing nothing to stop her, she opened her mouth as if she were going to speak before quickly closing it again.

Lena sucked in a sharp breath as Widowmaker leaned in closer, her damp hair trailing over her chest. As she went to lean in further, Lena vanished, leaving her hovering over nothing. For the first time since the girl first appeared in her room, she was disappointed to see her gone.

 

Widowmaker almost regretted her actions when Sombra started speaking to her on her way back to her room with her breakfast the following day. This was the problem with having a routine, it meant opportunities to bother her were easily found. Sombra had decided to show her pictures of her previous evening, her activities with Lena. She figured out quickly that Sombra was attempting to get an emotional rise out of her and left her pouting slightly in the hallway when she simply shrugged off the photos, refusing to acknowledge their importance. Ever since Sombra had arrived at base, beginning her contract with Talon, she had made it her hobby to try get a rise out of the infamously emotionless Widowmaker to pass the time.

 

The next day, Lena showed up again just after Widowmaker had finished her breakfast; The shortest gap between appearances so far. She was still sporting a slight blush on her face, Lena had said in the past that sometimes she reappeared at a later time for Widowmaker immediately and other times the slipstream deposited her elsewhere first. It looked like she had reappeared instantly this time, as she let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Widowmaker fully clothed.

“Back again already, chérie? You were only here just last night.” She smirked at Lena as she picked up tea, taking a small sip.

“Hullo you! So did you end up getting those books I asked for?” Lena asked, ignoring the dig and obviously not wanting to think about the events of the previous night.

“I did.” Widowmaker replied, placing her mug back down on the desk and heading over to where she had been storing the magazines. She had bought the books and placed them on top of the box. “These will take us some time to get through.” She turned and found Lena sitting at her usual place by the foot of her bed.

“That’s the whole point, luv. It’s a real good read and you haven’t read it before, or don’t remember it, you _have_ to.” Widowmaker watched the girl ramble about the books and how much she loved them for a few moments before she joined her in sitting on the floor. Usually Widowmaker would be heading downstairs in order to begin running her drills in the training hall but that wasn’t mandatory, it was just what she did to pass the time. She certainly couldn’t bring Lena with her for that. She _could_ leave her alone in the room, but...

“If you’ve read it before, chérie, why did you request I buy it?” She turned the first book over in her hand, looking at the brightly decorated cover and wondering what could possibly be so good about what looked to be a children’s book.

“Because I like re-reading them and you need to read them. It’s a win-win.” Widowmaker rolled her eyes as she opened the book to its first page and began reading. There was no point arguing with the girl.

Lena leant her head on Widowmaker’s shoulder, and as she turned the page to the second chapter, Lena began an awkward manoeuvre into her lap, taking a seat in the middle of her crossed legs. Widowmaker made no attempt to stop her, merely watched it happen with a perplexed look on her face. Lena gave a little giggle.

“You seemed to be alright with being all close to me yesterday, luv.”

Widowmaker scoffed, letting Lena cuddle right up to her and tuck her head under her chin. When Lena seemed to be settled she continued reading, until she disappeared again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is a little shorter! Hoping to post another chapter that's a little longer soon.


	4. Decisions

Widowmaker let out a low sigh as she flipped the page of the book in her hands. They had slowly but surely made their way through to the third book of the series, and she was beginning to see the appeal of it - not that she would ever admit that to Lena. She reached down and began running her fingers through Lena’s hair as she had been asked, the girl had taken to lying down on the floor with her head resting in Widowmaker’s lap, demanding that she play with her hair until Widowmaker gave in. Other than that, Lena would remain silent throughout. Prior to giving into Lena’s request to read these books aloud to her, Lena had been unable to keep herself from asking asinine questions and from fidgeting. These books somehow made her sit still and keep quiet for long periods of time. Even if she hadn’t begun to like books herself, she could appreciate them for what they did.

It had taken Widowmaker time to get used to the idea of the plot not being _entirely_ consistent, finding plot holes here and there. Lena had told her repeatedly to ‘stop worrying so much and just enjoy the story’ but it took a little more effort than that. She began to grumble to herself as she found something else that bothered her, earning a little sigh from Lena. Widowmaker watched as Lena propped herself up to look at her.

“Can’t you just enjoy it, luv? It’s not perfect, it’s just a story.”

“Why do you always need me to hold you and pet your hair?” Widowmaker deflected, earning light pink flush on Lena’s face at the question.

“Haven’t been able to touch anyone in months. ‘Course I’m keen to be touched, even by you.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes as Lena dropped her head back into Widowmaker’s lap. A few moments of silence passed between them before she decided to ask Lena a question that had been needling at her for weeks.

“Why are you still here? Isn’t your precious Overwatch coming to save you? It does not look like they’re trying to find you.” Lena was silent for a few moments after Widowmaker finished speaking. It was true that Overwatch had changed her status from Missing In Action to Killed In Action a few weeks ago now but that didn’t stop her from hoping.

“They’re gonna come for me luv, I know it. Winston will find me.”

Widowmaker pursed her lips at the girl's response before going back to running her fingers through unruly brown locks, continuing to read out the content of the page.  

 

It took a few months to finish reading the Harry Potter series between the variation in how long Lena would appear for and how often. Sometimes she would appear beside Widowmaker while she was in the middle of a mission and obviously unable to read the books to her. At those times, Lena would begin to prattle on about her times in the RAF and Overwatch, particularly talking about Winston. Widowmaker made a mental note to look into who that was later.

As soon as they had finished the books and Widowmaker was on base at the same time as Sombra, she visited the hacker in her own quarters. She needed something other than reading to pass the time that Lena was present for, it had been enjoyable so far because it kept Lena from talking but she needed something new, something that would keep herself entertained as well.

The last thing she really wanted was to spend more time around Sombra. The woman purposefully spent her time trying to rub her the wrong way, but Widowmaker wanted to learn how to play Blackjack and she knew Sombra to have a particular knack for the game. Before long, she found herself standing outside Sombra’s door, knocking lightly on the wood.

When Sombra answered, popping her head out from behind the door, Widowmaker found herself rolling her eyes. Sombra had a wide grin on her face, and a feeling that she would regret her decision to come here began sinking into Widowmaker’s bones.

“Well, if it isn’t my _favorite_ spider. What brings you to my humble abode?”

Widowmaker took a long breath in, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

“I need to learn how to play Blackjack, and you have advertised on many occasions that you know how to play it.”

Sombra playfully pursed her lips, as if she were actually taking time to consider whether she was going to help her. After Widowmaker let out a loud aggravated sigh, Sombra stepped aside and let her into her room.    

“Why do you need to know how to play Blackjack, amiga?” Widowmaker followed her inside, closing the door behind herself and standing still as she watched Sombra head over to her desk, opening the top draw. After a few moments of silence between them, Sombra spoke again, “Does it have something to do with your little girlfriend?”

She narrowed her eyes at Sombra, her fists clenching at the accusation. “She’s not my girlfriend. She is an annoyance who continues to appear around me no matter what I do. I might as well keep myself entertained, so, you will teach me.”

Sombra smirked at her as she pulled a pack of playing cards sporting a Mexican Sugar Skull design similiar to her own signature from her desk drawer.

“She’s not your girlfriend, whatever.” Sombra waved her free hand in a gesture that signaled she was dropping the topic before continuing, “You seem to like her a lot though, whether you admit it or not.” Widowmaker watched as Sombra sat on the bed, sitting cross-legged and facing towards her as she opened the pack of cards. She let out a scoff before crossing the room to join her, taking a seat on the mattress in front of her.   

“Just teach me the game, Sombra.” Widowmaker cut her off before she could continue her teasing, earning a chuckle from Sombra as she dealt out some cards in front of them.

“Alright, arana, the rules are as follows…”

 

It had surprised Widowmaker that Sombra’s instructions on how to play Blackjack were actually quite informative. She did seem to finally have some uses besides being a continual annoyance. Widowmaker asked Sombra for a pack of cards to use to actually play Blackjack without her, it was met with Sombra insisting that all her decks were custom and not to be given away. This forced her to go back out in public to purchase some of her own.

When Widowmaker returned from her trip to the nearest store that sold playing cards, she found Lena sitting in her room. It had been almost three days since she had last appeared anywhere near her, and Lena had never appeared in her room without her being there, so seeing the girl already sitting on the bed was unexpected. Unexpected enough that Widowmaker jumped slightly at the sight, almost dropping the bag she was carrying containing the playing cards, drawing a snigger from Lena.

“You alright, luv? Did I manage to give the scawwy sniper a fwight?” Widowmaker pursed her lips at the cheeky grin Lena was sporting.

“I was going to keep you entertained with a game, cherie, but now that you’re talking like that, maybe I will leave you in here alone.” Widowmaker smirked as Lena began to scramble off the bed towards her, trying to keep her from turning around and walking back out the door.

“W-Wait!” Lena reached forward, her hand moving through Widowmaker and causing her to grunt in frustration. Whether she was physically there or not was never consistent from one moment to the next. “What game?” She did her best to perk up, not wanting to let the frustration of fading away bother her.

“Blackjack. Have you heard of it?” Widowmaker asked as she reached into the carry bag in her hands, pulling out the deck of cards she had just bought. Lena’s more glum expression quickly faded into a smug look.

“‘Course I’ve heard of it, luv. Do you even know how to play it?” She ignored Lena’s question, taking a seat on the floor and opening the pack of cards. Lena moved to sit down on the floor opposite her, watching intently as she began shuffling the cards like Sombra had taught her.

“I do. Do you know the rules, cherie?” Lena gave a small laugh, eyes moving between the cards and Widowmaker’s own.

“Didn’t get much of a chance to learn how to gamble between serving in the RAF and then Overwatch. Don’t get much free time.”

“The goal of the game is to reach a total of twenty one or as close to it as possible without going over. The card values are the same as the numbers on the card except for the face cards which are ten and aces which are both eleven or one depending on your hand.” Widowmaker explained as Lena nodded along, watching her display the cards she was talking about. “You start out with two cards dealt as your hand and then you decide whether you hit or stand based on your hand value. If you stand, you cannot hit again. Questions?” She raised an eyebrow at Lena, studying her face for any sign of confusion.

“Don’t think so, luv. Should just be easier to try it and see what happens, yeah?” Lena smiled at her, rubbing her palms together.

The pair played a few practice rounds for Lena to make sure she understood the rules before they introduced any betting. Concern began to creep up on Widowmaker as Lena managed to win every single practice round and bounced with excitement at the idea of real betting. Lena’s eyebrows drew together as Widowmaker prepared the cards.

“I don’t have any money. What’re we even going to be betting?” Lena ran her fingers through her hair as Widowmaker hummed to herself, considering the stakes.

“How about a point system -  and the winner gets to choose what they collect from the loser when you’re free from… this.” Widowmaker gestured in Lena’s general direction, obviously referring to being lost in time. It brought a small smile to Lena’s face.

“Sounds good to me... So you think I’m gunna get out of this, luv? You think Overwatch, Winston, will come get me too?”   
“I… do not know. Perhaps.” Widowmaker’s hesitation didn’t seem to dampen Lena’s excitement and faith in Winston. She watched Lena closely throughout the rounds of Blackjack and she would use that as her excuse later after losing almost every single round to Lena. After her ninth loss, Widowmaker leaned back in disbelief, tossing her cards aside with disgust.

“So, you owe me now?” Lena grinned up at her, causing Widowmaker to roll her eyes.

“Unfortunately.”

“Alright, luv. I’ll collect as soon as I can.”

  


Almost two weeks later it was Widowmaker’s birthday, or rather, Amelie Lacroix’s birthday. Widowmaker had never felt particularly attached to the date, though she knew when it was and it’s significance. At least, that had been the case until Lena showed up on the day itself, sporting her usual wide grin. Widowmaker had been reading a book at her desk at the time, and she had barely been able to bookmark her place.

“Happy birthday, luv!” Lena exclaimed, a touch too loud, hands clasped in front of her chest. Widowmaker stared on at her in confusion.

“How do you know my birthday?” Widowmaker narrowed her eyes slightly as another thought struck her, “How do you even know what day of the month it is? You have never known before.” She watched as Lena’s face twisted with confusion.

“That’s a good question…” Lena trailed off as she played with her helix piercings. “Just had a feeling is all.” She quickly shrugged her shoulders, the smile returning to her face. “I would have gotten you something for your birthday, luv, but you know..”

“I do not celebrate my birthday, there is no need to purchase anything.” Widowmaker said flatly, turning back to her book.

Lena’s shoulders slumped, her lower lip sticking out in a pout.

“What do you mean you don’t celebrate your birthday? That’s not okay! We’re gunna do something whether you like it or not!”

“Oh? What would you suggest, cherie?” Widowmaker raised an expectant brow at her, waiting for Lena to realise there wasn’t exactly much they _could_ do even if she wanted to. Lena narrowed her eyes slightly, her arms crossing over her chest as she seemed to consider their options.

“I… _bollocks_. Well… I guess this just means I have to do something for you as soon as I get out! You not doing anything for your birthday’s not cool, luv,” the grin was back once again, and it amazed Widowmaker how expressive she was and how she was able to reassure herself with hope so quickly. Widowmaker put up with Lena’s yammering about birthdays and how important they are for almost an hour, only finding mild interest in some of her more personal stories from before she joined the RAF.

"... and you wouldn't _believe_ the face he made when he found out we'd gift wrapped everything in his office! Got us extra PT punishment but man, that was _so_ worth it."   
Widowmaker watched with a small smile as Lena wrapped up another story about birthday celebrations from her RAF days. "You certainly don't seem to be lacking in ideas for mischief cherie. Were you always this wild, I wonder?"   
"Ah..." Lena deflated slightly, much to Widowmaker's surprise. "Not really?” Lena ran a hand through her hair, eyes averting to the floor, “My mates talked me into it, I'm blameless!"   
Widowmaker narrowed her eyes at the deflection, but didn't push for more information as Lena adamantly continued on to another topic. It was something that Widowmaker had never seen her do before, she never gave up the opportunity to talk. The thought of it stayed on Widowmaker’s mind even after Lena disappeared that evening.

 

After losing to Lena at Blackjack, the thought of Lena being stuck in the Slipstream wouldn’t leave Widowmaker’s mind. She couldn’t understand how Lena could be so certain in Overwatch’s - particularly this Winston’s - ability to bring her back, let alone their interest in doing so. It had been nearly seven months and Overwatch had already changed her status from Missing In Action to Killed In Action, signalling that they had made up their minds about whether Lena could be brought back.

Widowmaker tried to leave it be, to not let the thoughts of Overwatch choosing to do nothing bother her. _It’s none of my business. If they want her, they will seek her._

Which is how, a week later, she found herself waiting at Sombra’s door again.. Sombra opened the door, changed from her usual mission gear into fuzzy purple pyjamas, with a towel wrapped around her head. She raised an eyebrow at Widowmaker, waiting for her to speak.

“I am in need of your assistance.” Widowmaker said, only just above a murmur. She had never been good at asking for help, but this was _certainly not_ her area of expertise. Sombra let out a quiet scoff at the way that Widowmaker chose to ask for her help but stepped aside anyway to let her in.

“And what exactly do you need my assistance with, arana?” Sombra asked, tossing the towel over the back of her desk chair before turning to face her, placing a hand casually on her hip.

“It’s about Lena.” Widowmaker answered curtly, pressing her lips together tightly. She didn’t like bringing Lena up with Sombra, it was always followed by annoying questions and teasing.

“Your time travelling girlfriend?” Sombra smirked as Widowmaker narrowed her eyes at her before she raised her hands up in placation, “Sorry, sorry. _Friend._ ”

“I need to know why Overwatch hasn’t found her yet, why it has been seven months and she is still in the Slipstream.”

Sombra stared at her for a long moment, and Widowmaker stared right back. She rolled her eyes and gestured towards the bed before flopping into the chair at her desk and pulling up a set of screens with one hand. Widowmaker chose to stand, crossing her arms against her chest as she watched Sombra work. A few quiet minutes passed before Sombra turned back to face her, her expression more serious than Widowmaker had ever seen before.

“I’ve already been looking into this for you, amiga, for when you finally got curious enough to ask. The reason they haven’t found Lena is because they’re not looking. _At all_. Jack Morrison withdrew all permissions to look into Lena Oxton’s disappearance three months ago. It hasn’t stopped her friend from putting in more requests for funding to keep looking - but they keep being denied.” Sombra explained, flicking her hand and expanding the screens, the red DENIED status printed across the documents a damning death knell. “If you are planning to rescue her from the Slipstream, it seems her friend - Winston is the place to start. He already has a theory about where Lena is and how to get her back. It’s just a matter of money.” Sombra watched Widowmaker’s face closely as she examined the plans.

“Perhaps. What would you suggest?” Widowmaker moved her eyes from the screens to Sombra’s, relaxing a little at the smile that Sombra offered her, a more genuine smile than anything she’d seen from her before.

“ _He_ might not have the money. But I know someone who _does."_ Sombra leaned back and grinned, sharp teeth gleaming in the purple glow of the monitors. _"_ Tell me amiga, how does your girlfriend feel about wearing red and black?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the later update than usual! I was in the hospital :D Hopefully things will be a little faster from here.


	5. New Friends

Widowmaker twitched in her sleep as warm breath washed over her cheek. Something soft tickled at her nose and she twitched, batting a hand at the offending item, only for it to make contact with something solid. She frowned, cracking a bleary eye open to glare at the disturbance, flinging herself back against the wall with a curse when she realised the lump on her pillow was a face. The lump stirred, and Lena’s sleepy face peeked up at her from under the covers.

“Lena?” She exclaimed, her hand raising to her chest as if to slow her still sluggish heart beat. Lena let out a small groan, bringing a hand up to her face and rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her palm. “Mon dieu. What are you doing in my bed?” Widowmaker reached out and shook Lena slightly, forcing her to wake up faster.

“Mmm, sorry, luv.” Lena began, her words slurring slightly, “I turned up here last night and found you already in bed, thought I’d disappear before you woke up. It happened last time I showed up and you were sleeping.”

Widowmaker narrowed her eyes at Lena as she slowly sat up, combing her fingers through her tousled hair. “You have slept in my bed before?” She pursed her lips, watching as a pink flush spread across Lena’s cheeks. She obviously hadn’t thought it through before she spoke.

“Well… Yeah, I mean… Don’t exactly get the chance to lie down very often when in the Slipstream, you know?” Lena offered with a small shrug, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. It was obvious even to Widowmaker that she wasn’t being entirely truthful but she decided to let it pass without pushing further. Widowmaker sank back into the mattress beside Lena, resting her hands on her stomach. Lena watched for a few moments before taking the hint and lying back down next to her. They didn’t touch each other. Widowmaker kept her eyes on the ceiling but her mind remained on the girl next to her - mostly on the fact that she had somehow slept in her bed _twice_ without her noticing.

 

Much to Widowmaker’s dismay, it seemed that Lena was determined to give her as many frights as she could when she turned up. If she appeared where Widowmaker couldn’t see her or feel her presence, Lena would do her best to find a hiding spot and scare her. One day, when Widowmaker returned to her room after collecting her dinner from the food hall, Lena popped out from behind the door, causing Widowmaker to throw her food to the ground as she spun around with the tray raised, ready to strike the would-be attacker.

“Merde!” Widowmaker cried out as Lena raised her hands to protect herself and let out a small squeal. The tray phased right through Lena, causing a small pout to form on her lips. It was going to be one of _those_ days where she wasn’t quite there. “ _Lena_ , why do you keep on insisting on sneaking up on me? You are lucky that I am not particularly hungry.” She said, eyeing the food now spilled on the floor.  

“Sorry, luv. Just thought it was kinda funny. You’re so serious all the time!” Lena gave her a hopeful look, obviously wanting her forgiveness. Widowmaker pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut and letting out a long sigh.

“If you’re not going to go back for more food then, did you get anything new for us to try since I was last here?” Lena asked, eyes shining with excitement. Widowmaker had been getting better at picking out things for them to do while together.

“Oui.” Widowmaker replied, placing the now empty tray on her desk top. Lena watched her silently as she crossed the room, picking up a plastic bag from its place in the back of her wardrobe. She removed a box from it and brought it to the middle of the room, taking a seat on the floor as they usually did, and Lena scrambled to follow. Lena’s face lit up as soon as she recognised the contents of the box.

“Snakes and Ladders, luv? Didn’t think you’d be interested in playing a game like that.” She seemed to bounce where she sat, watching as Widowmaker opened the box and began setting up the board.

“I have been told that it is a popular game. I thought that you would appreciate it.” Widowmaker averted her eyes though still unable to avoid seeing the grin on Lena’s face.

“You thought of me? I knew I’d grow on you!” Lena giggled, ignoring the way that Widowmaker rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“I assume you will need me to move the pieces for you, you do not seem to be very… physical at the moment.” She ignored Lena’s comments and picked up the dice. “Do you wish to go first?”

“I don’t mind. Your choice.” Lena shrugged then watched with her face resting in the palm of her hand as Widowmaker tossed the dice against the board and moved her piece before doing the same for Lena’s piece. It wasn’t until Widowmaker had started to win by a mile that Lena noticed she was cheating. Lena’s eyes widened, and she placed her fists on her hips and puffed up her cheeks in anger.

“Oi! You can’t do that! You’re moving my piece less than what’s on the dice.” Lena protested with a pout as she tried to reach out to move the piece herself, her fingers moving right through it. Widowmaker’s chuckle turned into a throaty laugh that took Lena by surprise, and soon she was giggling alongside Widowmaker.

“Unfortunately for you, chérie, you can not stop me from _cheating_ at this children’s game.” She said smugly, tossing the dice again and moving her piece, deliberately skipping over the box that would have sent her down a snake.

“ _Hey!”_ Lena scowled as Widowmaker moved her own piece to the goal with a wicked grin, laughing as Widowmaker stuck her tongue out playfully.

“I do have something to ask you, Lena.” Widowmaker said, her tone turning serious. Lena sat up and looked at Widowmaker curiously.

“Sure, luv. What is it?”

“If Overwatch could not rescue you, would you be opposed to having Talon bring you out of the Slipstream?” Widowmaker looked up as she asked, locking eyes with the girl, watching her eyebrows draw together in confusion.

“Like… As in a hypothetical situation?”

“If you like.” Widowmaker replied.

Lena averted her eyes as she fiddled with her fingers. “Well, _if_ Overwatch or Winston couldn’t come get me for some reason then yeah, I guess I could be willing to get help from Talon. Wouldn’t really want to serve Talon, not from what I’ve heard about them but… living would be nice.”

 

If Widowmaker had been uncertain about whether to go through with the plan that Sombra had suggested when they spoke in the hacker’s room, she was certain now. Initially, she had hesitated proceeding with the plan because of Lena’s reply to her ‘hypothetical question’, however that was completely thrown out the window when she after a mission to Lena already present in her room. Her sniper suit was still covered in dust and blood from a fire fight out by Route 66, and she had been looking forward to peeling it off and taking a long soak in her shower, but the sight of Lena curled up in the corner of her room, eyes staring into nothingness put a quick end to that line of thought.

A pang of sorrow passed through Widowmaker as Lena continued staring past her,not even acknowledging that she had even entered the room, looking smaller than she ever had.

“Lena?” She asked, trying to garner some form of reaction from her as she removed Widow’s Kiss from its holster on her shoulder and leant it against her bed. Widowmaker disabled her recon visor as she crossed the room to Lena, tossing it onto the mattress. Lena didn’t respond, but slowly moved her eyes to look up at her. Widowmaker could hear her laboured breathing.

“What is the matter?” She wasn’t good at dealing with situations like this. _If only Talon had use for a sympathetic assassin_ , she thought wryly before making up her mind.

She slowly sank down beside Lena, her shoulder touching Lena’s, doing nothing else for a few moments. Slowly, she moved to pull Lena into her lap, sitting her between her crossed legs and resting her head against her shoulder. Lena said nothing, her body stiffening against her briefly before relaxing. Widowmaker didn’t ask any further questions, choosing to hold Lena until she disappeared instead.  

 

Widowmaker settled into a prone position on a gravel rooftop, feeling the chilly Switzerland caress her skin in the cool breeze. Anyone else would have shivered at the temperature, but thanks to Talon’s modifications, it simply felt like a regular breeze. Over the seven months that Lena had appearing near her with regularity, Widowmaker had begun to develop a sixth sense for when she was in her presence but out of her sight. She lifted her eyes from her scope, turning to look back at where Lena stood behind her, but the girl wasn’t looking at her. Her head whipped around as she took in her surroundings, before zeroing in on the building that Widowmaker had Widow’s Kiss aimed at.

“Luv? What’re you doing in Switzerland? That’s the Overwatch Headquarters.” Lena’s face pinched with confusion for a few moments before her eyes widened as she came to a realisation.

“It is not what it looks like. This is a simple recon mission.” Widowmaker explained, standing up and holstering her rifle back over her shoulder. Relief seemed to settle in on Lena’s face at the reassurance that she wasn’t here on a elimination mission.

“If you’re not here to kill anyone, what’re you doing here then?” Lena asked, looking past where she stood and staring at the building behind them.

“I have been given permission by Talon to approach your friend with an offer in order to organise your recovery from the Slipstream.” Widowmaker stepped towards the edge of the rooftop, raising her arm to aim her grapple hook.

“My friend?” Lena’s eyebrows drew together in confusion briefly before realisation crossed her face, “You mean Winston? Why would you be coming to see him?” Lena watched the small emotions and hesitation on Widowmaker’s face as she decided how to answer.

“Overwatch has not been looking for you, chérie. I intend to fix that, somehow.” Widowmaker replied, attempting to be as deliberately vague as possible before firing her grappling hook and disappearing from the roof, leaving Lena behind.

In the hours she had been watching the building, she had discovered a poorly protected side entrance to use to gain entry. After that, all she would have to do was to use the device Sombra had given her to disable the security cameras long enough to give her the chance to have the conversation she needed.   

Widowmaker scanned the dark room, nodding in satisfaction when the infra vision of her goggles highlighted a solitary heat signature in the otherwise empty laboratory. She disengaged the visor and stalked towards her prey. The only light source came from the several large monitors on the wall, a dark figure sitting in front of them. He hadn’t noticed her yet. Widowmaker smirked to herself before announcing her presence.   

“Bonjour, Monsieur Winston. I have a proposal for you..”

 

     


	6. The Proposal

Widowmaker watched curiously as a pair of eyes moved from the monitors to where she stood by the door. There was brief rustling and a low grumble before the lights in the lab flickered on, revealing not the willowy man that she expected, but a half-tonne gorilla. Widowmaker blinked, silently staring at him for a few moments. 

“Hein?” Widowmaker said, tilting her head to the side slightly, trying to process the sight in front of her, “C'est quoi ce bordel?” 

“Athena?” Winston called out, alarm clear in his voice, “How did a Talon  _ assassin _ get into base without being detected?” He typed on his keyboard, a futile effort to call for backup. She stepped closer towards him.

“You will not be able to get a signal out to inform anyone else that I am here. As I said, I have a proposal for you,” Widowmaker repeated, “and I have a feeling that you will be  _ very _ interested in it.” 

Winston ignored her at first, continuing his attempts to request for backup, but it became clear quickly that the signals from the room were definitely jammed. He let out a sigh and rose from his chair, moving towards Widowmaker but maintaining a definitive distance. 

“I assume you aren’t here to kill me, you would have done it by now if that were the plan. So I’m left with no choice but to listen to what you have to say. You have my attention.” Winston kept his eyes laser focused on Widowmaker’s, tension evident in his face. 

“Talon has given me permission to initiate research into rescuing Lena Oxton from the Slipstream. I have been made aware that you are the best person to approach regarding it. Talon can provide the funding for you to continue that investigation.” Confusion and disbelief flashed across Winston’s face, before settling into anger. 

“How do you even know that name?” He growled, “ _ You, _ of all people,  _ do not _ get to come in here and use  _ that _ name. I will never work with Talon - and don’t even  _ think _ that your false claims can convince me otherwise ” Winston’s posture stiffened as he spoke as he drew himself up to a greater height. Widowmaker let out a slow sigh, she should have known he wouldn’t be so easily convinced. 

“I am aware of who Lena Oxton is  _ entirely _ because the Slipstream continues to deposit her in my presence. She has been appearing before me for over seven months and I have been waiting for Overwatch to recover her. Lena believes that you will save her, regardless of how long it has been since she first disappeared. I am here to offer you -  _ her _ that chance.” Widowmaker shifted slightly under Winston’s intense searching gaze.

“You expect me to believe that Lena would reappear within  _ Talon _ of all places?” He spoke incredulously, “Even assuming that I would believe  _ any  _ of what you just told me, which I certainly don’t, why would I  _ ever _ rescue Lena only to turn her over to you? She would be worse off in Talon’s hands. I  _ refuse _ to let them strip her of her personality, to let them strip her of everything that makes her,  _ her _ and turns her into an empty shell of a  _ monster _ like  _ you _ !" Winston was now close enough to her that she could feel his hot breath on her face, the previous distance that he maintained evaporated, gone in the flash of anger. 

Widowmaker stared in astonishment before she could re-engage her mind.  _ Of course _ she had been referred to by similar insults in the past, however they did tend to not be directly to her face. She had expected the gorilla to be a little more thrilled to know that Lena wasn’t dead as Overwatch had tried to claim. Widowmaker had just opened her mouth to speak, when the doors to the lab behind her swung open with a dramatic slam, swinging and hitting the wall on either side of the frame. 

“You wanker! You twat! You absolute  _ tosser!  _ You left me on the roof by myself! Do you _ know _ how hard it is to get down off a roof without some fancy grappling hook?” Lena stalked her way into the room, beelining towards Widowmaker. “I don’t just disappear because you stop talking to me, you know! I swear as soon as I get out of the Slipstream I’m gunna -” She stopped mid sentence, locking eyes with Winston. Lena froze for a brief moment as her annoyance disappeared and a crooked grin spreading across her face.

“Winston!” Lena cried out, quickly leaping the distance between them to lock her arms around his head, wrapping her legs around his torso and burying her face in his fur like she used to. Winston said nothing at first, though his arms instinctively went out to catch her, helping cradle her against his body. 

“Lena?” He asked lamely, continuing to stare at Widowmaker over Lena’s shoulder. 

“Mmmm, yes, luv?” She replied, nuzzling against his neck, “Forgot how warm you are, feels nice.” 

“Is what she’s been saying true, Lena?” Winston asked, still in disbelief. 

“What’s she been saying?” Lena pulled her head away from his neck to look over her shoulder at Widowmaker who stood watching, arms crossed against her chest. “She been saying I’ve  been showing up and bothering her for a good while now? ‘Cause that’s definitely true.” She looked back to examine his face before posing a question, “Is what she said true? Has Overwatch not been looking for me?” 

The way that Winston’s face sank made the answer obvious. Lena dropped down from where she had been clinging to him.

“I wanted to find you Lena… But after months of nothing, no appearances like I had theorised, Morrison cut my funding. Without any funding, I couldn’t test anything.” Winston watched as Lena clenched and unclenched her fists, face twisting as she processed her emotions.

“I’m not angry with you, luv… just… Morrison knew there was a chance I was still alive and he decided to let me rot?” Lena finally raised her eyes to meet Winston’s. 

“Yes.” There was no way getting around that question. He looked from Lena to Widowmaker who was still watching patiently. “What exactly  _ is _ your proposal then?”

Widowmaker pursed her lips, dropping her arms to hang by her sides, “After discovering that Overwatch planned to do nothing to recover Lena from the Slipstream, I approached the Board of Directors for Talon about her appearances and... offered a proposal. In exchange for rescuing Lena from the Slipstream, she serves Talon. The offer also extends to you,” Widowmaker punctuated her words, making direct eye contact with Winston, “They will fund your research into how to recover her in exchange for you serving Talon’s interests.”

“No, there is  _ no  _ way that we are agreeing to that. Talon is a despicable, morally reprehensible organisation that holds no regard for life” Winston went to move forward, only stopping as Lena placed a palm at his chest, forcing distance between him and Widowmaker. 

“I see you let your emotions control you.” Widowmaker said with a slight smile, “It is the best offer you will receive. I have already spoken to them about what I believe your conditions would be. Lena will not receive any mental reconditioning, not unless she fails to...  _ deliver _ . You will bring your infamous AI with you, Talon will not tamper with it, however, our own expert will be allowed to look at it.” Here Widowmaker paused, waiting for a response from either Lena or Winston, any objections or questions. Winston only let out a soft, assenting grunt as Lena placed her hands on her hips, both expecting her to continue talking.  

“You would have time to consider your options, of course. However, Talon expects a response in the near future. Needless to say, you will be required take all of your research and leave none of it behind for Overwatch to use. If they were to figure out that Lena was alive then-” Widowmaker was cut off by Winston finishing her sentence for her. 

“Then they would attempt to take her back themselves and that would go against Talon’s plans for Lena when she is rescued from the Slipstream.” Winston let out a slow sigh, bringing up a large hand to scratch at his head, looking to where Lena stood, “What do you want, Lena?” 

Lena hesitated to answer for a moment, tapping her right index finger against her hip, “I can’t keep living like this, luv. If Overwatch doesn’t want to help unless it benefits them, then they’re no better than Talon, really. Can’t make you do it, Winston, but if you’re considering it already,  _ please. _ ” There was a short silence between them all after Lena finished talking. Widowmaker pulled a piece of folded paper out of a concealed pocket on the inside the breast of her sniper suit, holding it out to the gorilla as he watched in silence.

“That letter contains all the information required to fulfil Talon’s conditions and how to request extraction when you are ready.” Widowmaker continued to hold out the folded paper towards him as Winston hesitated, staring at it in her hands. After a few moments, he plucked it out of her hands. “If you don’t have any other questions, I will be leaving.” She stayed where she was for a few more moments before turning and heading for the door, waiting until she had cleared the building to switch off the device that had been disrupting Winston’s systems. 

Once they were left alone, Lena turned to look at Winston, a lazy smirk on her face. “She’s got a real nice bum, doesn’t she, luv?” She giggled when he let out a low groan. 

“Good to see that you haven’t changed, Lena.”

  
  
  


When Widowmaker returned to Talon base later that night, she made her way straight to Sombra’s room, this time choosing not to bother to knock. She began speaking before she even entered the room.

“Sombra, a  _ warning _ that Winston is a  _ gorilla _ would have been nice.” As she stepped through the doorway, she was greeted with the sight of Sombra sitting at her desk with her legs brought up against her chest, purple monitors on display in front of her - and a stuffed teddy bear in her arms. 

“Winston’s a gorilla?” Sombra asked, quickly tossing the bear onto the bed behind her to get it out of sight. At Widowmaker’s raised eyebrow she continued, “Okay okay, I knew he was a gorilla. I thought it’d be funny if you didn’t know though. Scared you, did he?”

Widowmaker scoffed and rolled her eyes before changing the subject, “I assume with you being who you are, you have information on Lena as well.” She crossed her arms, waiting expectantly while Sombra eyed her curiously. 

“What kind of information are you looking for?” Sombra dropped her feet back to the floor from where they had been perched on the chair, pulling forth the files she had on Lena and angling the monitors towards Widowmaker so she could look for herself. “Most of what I have on her is what I managed to find when I hacked into Overwatch for… reasons. I figured you might want to see it at some point.” Sombra watched her read for a few moments before talking again. “You might find it interesting that the first half of her file seems to be redacted, possibly even entirely deleted. Anything detailing her time before joining the RAF seems to be gone besides basic information such as where she was born and her date of birth.” Sombra waved her hand instead of continuing her list. 

“Completely gone?” Widowmaker’s eyes darted between where Sombra sat and the files on the monitors. 

“Someone in Overwatch with administrator access had to have deleted the information in there. Must mean your girlfriend has something to hide, amiga.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Levi: "And this is where Levi got tired. Good fucking night." -6am  
> Nox: Ah, shit.


	7. Questions

Widowmaker spent the free moments of her days after she returned from Switzerland sitting at her desk, flipping through the pages of the physical copy of Lena’s file. She had Sombra give her a physical version, preferring to stay as far away as possible from computers. Even though she had been given adequate training in order to be able to use computers after being turned into the Widowmaker, she had always held an aversion, preferring to do things by hand. She couldn’t really explain it. Whenever she could, she would scour through the later pages of the file, trying to locate any hints as to why there were such large sections about Lena’s early life that were redacted or outright deleted. The only clue that Widowmaker discovered was in the psychological evaluation that Lena had received, it was still largely redacted much like the rest of the document but it seemed that whoever did this missed a couple of words in their search. The words “distressing childhood” had been forgotten, though the words that followed them were redacted. If those words were anything to go by, it certainly explained why Lena would have avoided any questions about her life before the RAF. Widowmaker didn’t suspect that whatever had been hidden was dangerous in anyway however...  it _did_ make her curious, even slightly… on edge? _Emotions are so tedious,_ Widowmaker thought, _no wonder Talon has no room for them._ She resolved to try sate her curiosity the next time she had the opportunity to speak with Lena, if only to allay her discomfort.

  


Lena took longer than usual to make a reappearance. At the current rate, she had been turning up every two to three days, however this time there was eight days between Switzerland and her next appearance. Lena appeared in a flash of blue beside her as she was running through her drills at the firing range. It was the first time that Lena appeared on the Talon base outside her room or bathroom. Widowmaker was so used to Lena appear at any time she was no longer surprised to see her.

“Practicing are we, luv?” Lena asked, her cheery British accent echoing slightly through the empty hall. Even though Lena was no longer a tightly secret kept from Talon, Widowmaker was glad that they were alone in the firing range together. \

“Nothing gets past you, does it, chèrie?” Widowmaker snarked, reloading her rifle and turning back to aim another shot at the target.

“Rude!” Lena piped up, bringing a small smile to Widowmaker’s face. Lena leaned against a nearby wall, patiently watching as Widowmaker emptied all the rounds into a target. “Do you like being the way you are, Widow?”

Widowmaker paused, resting her rifle down as she turned to look at where Lena stood. “Why the sudden interest in me?” She asked, watching as Lena shifted uncomfortably under her  gaze.

“Just have to ask, you know, since I'm joining… this.” Lena gestured towards the whole room with the flick of her hand, “Are you happy serving their interests? Living here?”

Widowmaker stood up from where she had been crouching, “I do not have a preference about Talon or where I live or what I am, chèrie. What Talon did made _me_ , the Widowmaker. I am not the same person as the woman they took and do not see myself as her. Do you understand?” Widowmaker asked, watching as Lena’s big brown eyes stared up at her, considering what she'd just been told. After a moment, Lena gave a nod of what seemed to be understanding.

“I never knew who Amélie was, I only know her from stories and pictures shared around Overwatch. You won't get me expecting you to be her, luv.” Lena reassured her. Widowmaker let out a short breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding in, tension bleeding out from her muscles.

“You got to ask _your_ questions. I have a few of my own.” She said, “I have been reviewing your Overwatch file and there is a large amount of information missing. Everything prior to your joining the RAF is redacted or deleted.”

Lena swallowed thickly, “I didn't hear a question, luv.”

“What happened before you joined the Air Force and why would it be removed from your file?” Widowmaker asked, seeing Lena begin to avert eye contact.

“It's nothing that Talon needs to concern itself with and I had _no idea_ that it had been deleted from my file.” Lena’s face twisted, anger beginning to show in her tone.

“It is not for _you_ to decide if it is Talon’s concern, chérie. Tell me, what happened before you began your service?” She asked again, refusing to back down from her curiosity. Widowmaker had little doubt that Lena was right, it most likely _was_ none of Talon’s concern, that, however, did not sate her own curiosity.

Lena snapped, “Can't you understand that I don't want to talk about it? It's _none_ of your **_fucking_ ** business!” Her voice echoed throughout the firing range, her figure distorting like static as anger contorted her features.

“Lena-” Widowmaker began, only to be cut off.

“ **_No!_ ** You don't get to ask me questions about-” Lena’s shouting ended abruptly, she had disappeared in a burst of static. Widowmaker stood in the empty firing range alone, deafening silence enveloping her.

  


Winston let out a low grunt as he packed more of his equipment into smaller protective cases. In the week that had passed since Widowmaker had appeared in his lab and her extending Talon’s offer to him, he had been doing his best to remain discrete. To follow Talon’s instructions, his leaving needed to have the element of surprise - no one could suspect that he had any intentions of leaving. He had been slowly stripping his lab of the pieces of equipment that were absolutely necessary. Athena had been running processes to slowly copy all of his files and replace them with ones that possessed incorrect information. Overwatch needed to be unable to follow him once he left and they _certainly_ couldn't be allowed realise his plan and build their own chamber to stabilise Lena.

He had expected to feel more guilt about what he was planning to do. Any time he considered how this could affect Overwatch, he would only be able to think about how Lena was _alive_ and they had _abandoned_ her. Overwatch had no intention to rescue her if they couldn't find use for her. Of course, Talon had the same intentions but they were honest about it, and at no point did they attempt to hide how this arrangement was designed to serve their own purposes.

“How close are we to being ready, Athena?” Winston called out as he put the last piece of equipment that he had deemed necessary in its case. It was now a matter of how long it would take Athena to finish taking care of the files. There was a short silence before she had an answer for him.

“Almost done. Do you wish for me to follow the instructions given on how to contact Talon for extraction? By the time they arrive, my processes should be complete.”

Winston considered this for a moment, taking one last longing look at the lab, _his lab_ . Even if he didn't agree with how Overwatch had handled Lena and he needed to seek outside other help to realise his goals, he didn't hate Overwatch. Sadness overwhelmed him as he took hold of a framed photo that sat next to one of his monitors. It was a group photo from a few weeks before the launch of the Slipstream, the last known photo taken of Lena. She, of course, was in the centre of the frame, pulling a face with her tongue stuck out. He wasn’t one for keeping many sentimental items and Talon _had_ requested he keep what he takes with him to a minimum but there was no way for him to be able to bring himself to leave this behind.

“Send in the request, Athena. It's time to get Lena back.”

  


Widowmaker watched with satisfaction as Winston unloaded his equipment. He had arrived in a Talon dropship barely a day after her... argument with Lena. Argument might not be the best word for it, but she had certainly upset Lena with her questions. She felt herself wanting to make up for it, for prying, though she didn’t know where to start.

She leaned against the wall, arms crossed against her chest as she watched Winston unload the last of his boxes. The Board of Directors had put her in charge of both Lena and Winston, which meant being forced to break her routine and meet him here and to help him settle in.

Footsteps to her left brought Widowmaker out of her thoughts, it was Sombra. She rarely saw the hacker outside of her room.

“Did you end up getting some answers about the missing parts of Lena’s file?” Sombra asked, her eyes examining Widowmaker’s face.

“You ask that as if you do not already know the answer. I haven't forgotten that you have a propensity for spying on me.” Widowmaker briefly met Sombra’s eyes before flicking them back to watch Winston carefully move the equipment onto a trolley.

“I'm just keeping an eye out for you, araña.” There was a brief silence between them, Widowmaker figured Sombra was looking for something to say as she continued to hover nearby. “You feeling guilty about pushing on her like that?” The seriousness in Sombra’s tone made her furrow her eyebrows.

“Guilty? It's almost as if you forget who you are speaking to.” Widowmaker punctuated it with a scoff, ignoring the idea that Sombra was at least somewhat right, she had been feeling _something_ about her interaction with Lena. She just wasn’t sure if guilt was the right word for it.

“That's how you're going to play it, amiga?” Sombra said, shaking her head slightly. “Enjoy babysitting your gorilla.” She continued with the wave of her hand, turning to leave the hanger.

Widowmaker continued to watch Winston for a few minutes before she decided to make her way over, making her presence known to him.

“Bonjour.” Widowmaker waited until he looked up, giving her his full attention. “Did you follow the instructions we gave you in regards to removing the files from the Overwatch database?”

“Yes. Yes I did. I had Athena replace them with corrupted duplicates before I handed in my letter of resignation and packed away Athena. There isn't anything that Overwatch can use to follow me or Talon’s plans… or at least not _exactly_.”

Widowmaker narrowed her eyes at him over the hesitation, “What do you mean not _exactly_?”

“I followed the instructions I was given but that won't stop Overwatch from noticing the files have been changed. We have a large head start but eventually they should put it together what I'm planning to do.” Winston said, reaching to pick up one of the protective cases. Widowmaker considered what he had said for a moment.

“A head start is all we need if you are as good as everyone says you are.” She watched him hold the case against his chest, “You can let one of the agents carry your things.” Widowmaker said with a careless flick of the wrist towards some of the nearby Talon agents.

“Only _I_ touch _this_ case. No offence.”

Widowmaker examined him closely for a moment before turning on her heel and beginning to lead him towards his lab, Winston taking a few moments to register he was meant to follow.

“Is that the case that contains your precious AI? Your _Athena_?” She asked curiously as they walked through the halls, some of the regular Talon agents following them with the rest of Winston’s equipment in hand.

“Uh, yes. I can't risk anyone tampering with her.” He replied, nervousness evident in his tone. Widowmaker suspected the prospect of someone at Talon even being allowed to look at it was daunting enough, and the idea of someone having the opportunity to tamper with her even more so. Widowmaker hummed in acknowledgement as she lead him to the elevator.

“Your lab is in the basement. It was the only free location large enough for you to work in based on the designs you gave us for the containment chamber.” Widowmaker could see Winston nod out of the corner of her eye. He was hardly friendly but it was leagues above their last conversation.

Once they entered his new lab, Widowmaker gave him several minutes to explore and put down some of his belongings. After she felt he was settled enough, she spoke.

“You will be reporting directly to me about your progress with the chamber and recovering Lena. If you require anything, you can speak to me. Try not to.” She said dryly. Winston only gave her a grunt in acknowledgement before dropping himself into the desk chair, one that Talon had custom made in the week since he agreed to join them.

“How long do you believe this will take?” She asked, watching as he began to set up personal items on the desk top.

“Worst case scenario, I think we’re looking at four months. I hope that it will be faster than that. I'll know more when I'm able to run my first tests.” He replied, not even turning to look at her as he spoke. Widowmaker hovered by the doorway for a moment, seeing him place a photo in a frame on his desk, the familiar mess of brown hair with a wide smile grinning up at her.

  


The next time Widowmaker saw Lena, to describe it as awkward would have been an understatement. Winston had asked her to come down to speak to him about his progress with the containment chamber. Widowmaker normally seethed over any interruptions to her routine but this felt different, it meant that Winston was making at least _some kind_ of progress in his plans and Lena would be rescued soon.

“I think I've sourced all the material for the chamber itself now. I can begin constructing it within the next few days. There will need to be some tests before I can be certain it'll pull Lena in and hold her there while I work on the implant.”

Widowmaker nodded slightly in acknowledgement, when almost as if Lena knew she had been mentioned, she appeared behind Winston, stumbling into his office chair that he had left out.

“Ow!” She cried out, hugging her knee to her chest. Widowmaker rolled her eyes.

“What is that English saying…. speak of the devil and he shall appear?” Widowmaker smirked at Winston as Lena limped her way around to stand between them.

“Hey luvs. Where are we at this time?” Lena asked, eyes wandering around the lab. “This your new lab? You decided to go for it?”

“I did. It was an offer I couldn't refuse, really.”

There was a short, uncomfortable silence between them. Lena averted her eyes from Widowmaker, staring at the tiled floor. Winston gave them a long look before crossing the lab, heading back to his desk to give them space.

“Look. I shouldn't have spoken to you like I did the other time. I'm just… I don't like to talk about it. Makes me… uncomfortable. I'm sorry for yelling at you, luv. You were just curious.” Lena fidgeted with her fingers, finally meeting Widowmaker’s gaze.

She gave a languid shrug in response, “It is your past. It was not any of Talon’s concern.” It was the closest thing to an apology that Widowmaker was willing to give but Lena didn't seem to care as a small smile broke across her face.

“Maybe we can talk about it someday. Just not… yet.” Apologies given, Lena twisted to look to where Winston was sitting at his desk. “Winston, luv. You got yourself a fit bird yet or are you still hanging around with good ol’ Athena?”

Winston turned to face her, giving Lena an unimpressed look. “Is there ever anything on your mind _other_ than women, Lena?”

As the two idly chatted away about life, Widowmaker watched on for a few moments before choosing to slip out the door unnoticed.

If Lena’s excitement to be around Winston again brought a small smile to Widowmaker’s face, no one would know.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twoheartedalien - Today at 9:48 AM  
> Sure  
> fuck it  
> We didn't do anything particularly shitposty for me to put in the end notes D:  
> Nox - Today at 9:50 AM  
> D:  
> twoheartedalien - Today at 9:50 AM  
> quick  
> shitpost batman  
> Nox - Today at 9:50 AM  
> nananananannananananana SHITPOST


	8. Finally! A Success!

It had been close to three months since Winston had left Overwatch, and it had been three months of  _ many _ failures. It had taken several attempts, but it seemed like he had finally figured out what he needed to do to be able to pull Lena back from the Slipstream. The first attempt had ended with Lena being brought into the containment chamber in a stable condition for only a few seconds before she disappeared again. Each attempt after that, the time Lena was stable inside the chamber increased, once lasting as long as five minutes. 

It had taken longer than he had expected for Talon to send someone to examine Athena like they had stated in their conditions. He had even begun to hope by the time two months had passed that they had forgotten about doing so. That went out the window when Widowmaker entered the lab early that morning and woke him from where he had been sleeping in his office chair. He had been working tirelessly and sleeping the bare minimum to keep the project moving. Each time Lena appeared and visited him, his motivation only increased. It was clear that Lena was trying to stay positive but each disappointment seemed to get harder on her. That dedication had caused Athena to worry, and much to his dismay, repeatedly ignore his requests to be woken up after five hours so he that could continue working. Which is why he was unprepared for Widowmaker dropping in for a visit. 

“Bonjour.” She said dryly, standing over him and looking down at him squarely in the face. Winston jolted in his chair and clutched at his chest, his heart having skipped what felt like several beats. 

“I have brought our expert to have her look at your AI as you agreed. This is Sombra.” Widowmaker directed his attention to the purple clad woman standing beside her with the flick of her hand. “You are to give her full, unimpeded access.” 

“Hola.” Sombra said, the corners of her mouth turning up into a smirk once they made eye contact.

“You'll need me to get out of the way then.” He murmured, forcing himself out of the chair and making room for Sombra. 

“Gracias amigo.” She said, swiftly taking the seat once he had made room and rubbing her palms together with unbridled excitement. 

Winston eyed her warily for a few moments before making his way over to the containment chamber, choosing to try distract himself with the finishing touches. After a few moments of silence, he could hear the clicking of Widowmaker’s boots against the tiled floor behind him. She said nothing at first, only watching him work. 

“How long?” Widowmaker asked, causing Winston to look up and meet her eyes. He had noticed that Widowmaker seemed to get concerned for Lena but was unable to express it, or possibly was uncomfortable with doing so, Winston wasn't sure. 

“Looking at three or four days, best estimate. Once I'm finished making the adjustments, we should be able to run another test and this time I  _ do _ believe we should be successful. The last test really did narrow down a lot of issues.” Winston examined Widowmaker’s face, waiting for some kind of reaction but she simply nodded and walked away, her expression remaining bland. If she was affected by that news in any way, she certainly didn't show it.

It was only after Widowmaker left both him and the lab that he noticed Sombra talking with Athena. He narrowed his eyes, he had expected Sombra, or whoever that Talon sent, to simply brute force their way through examining Athena. Instead, from where Winston stood, it seemed that Sombra was asking Athena to show her functionalities and components herself. Sombra noticed Winston’s gaze and smirked, not bothering to look up from the code scrolling across her screen.

“You need to lay off the peanut butter, amigo. With this many empty jars lying around, you're going to be even bigger in no time.” He simply grunted in reply. 

“She  _ is  _ right, Winston. You have been consuming far too much peanut butter and doing far too little exercise.” Athena said wryly, which was met with an eyeroll. 

“I told you not to monitor my activities, Athena.” He grumbled back, bringing a large hand up to scratch at this forehead. 

“It's hard not to notice, you do literally nothing other than sit at your computer or work on the chamber all day.” Sombra replied for Athena, picking up one of the untouched jars of peanut butter as she spoke.

“I think I might grow to like you.” Athena said in an amused tone, earning a short laugh from Sombra.

Winston was sure he should be nervous about  _ those two _ getting along.

 

Lena’s presence in the lab as he worked put Winston at ease. Even though he had been living and working on the Talon base for nearly three months now, the idea of serving their interests, even when it was the only way to serve his own, continued to make Winston feel uncomfortable. Whenever Lena got the chance to sit with him as he worked on the containment chamber, it reminded him of why he was here and eased of the guilt he felt. 

This time Lena sat on the edge of his desk, swinging her legs back and forth as she watched him work. There was a comfortable silence between them now that they had caught up on basically everything that had happened since the Slipstream. Winston had sat through Lena rambling about the things she had seen in the Slipstream, getting to know Widowmaker - though Winston doubted anyone could  _ really _ get to know Widowmaker - and her opinions on a few of the events that had happened since the launch. Lena had already prodded him with questions about everyone at Overwatch, choosing to avoid the touchy subject of Jack Morrison and his decision to leave Lena behind. She was glad to hear that Dr Angela Ziegler had finally met someone that made her happy, finding it hilarious that it turned out to be Captain Amari’s daughter. The conversation this time was different.

“Lena?” Winston asked, he continued to make adjustments, not yet turning to look at her. 

“Mmm?” She perked up, shifting slightly on the desk to face him at a better angle. 

“Do you  _ like _ the Widowmaker?” He tried his best to make it obvious what he was asking, he had never been very good at these types of conversations. Lena normally freely shared gossip about topics like these.

“Of course I do, luv.” Lena replied in a nonchalant manner. 

“No, do you **_like_** her?” Winston put his tools down, turning his body to face her completely. 

“Oh!” Her cheeks and ears began to redden at the question. She brought her index finger to her lips as she considered her answer. “I guess so. I've tried not to think about it, really.” 

“Why’s that?” Now he was genuinely curious, this was not like Lena  _ at all _ . 

“She doesn't feel the same about me, and  _ even _ if she did, she's going to be my boss whenever you're done getting me out.” Lena said, her shoulders hunching over as her fingertips began to pick nervously at the edge of the desk in front of her. 

“That's never stopped you from trying before, what makes this different?” Winston took several steps until he stood directly in front of Lena who was now avoiding his eyes. 

“Never would’ve thought you'd be encouraging me to date Widow.” She gave a small giggle that brought a smile to his face. 

“I'm not encouraging you to date her at all, in fact, I'd prefer it be almost anyone else.  _ However _ , I'm worried because this isn't like you at all.” He reached out and rested his hand on the top of Lena’s head, his large palm covering it completely. She gave him a crooked grin.

“I  _ really _ like her, luv. Just don't want to stuff things up is all.”

Winston ruffled her hair until it was twice as messy as usual causing her to reach up to try stop him, “If that's all, then I'm proud.” 

“Proud?” Lena asked, confused.

“It means you're finally not just trying to get into the closest moving skirt for once.” 

“Oi!” 

  
  


Widowmaker watched on silently as Winston did his final setup for the next test run for the containment chamber. His confidence in this version of the chamber seemed to be infectious as a few of the more unimportant members of the Board of Directors, a group of Talon agents and even Sombra made an appearance to see if this would be the success that Winston had been hoping. Widowmaker was eager for this to be done with, she had been kept off of missions for the most part in order to make sure that this went to plan. 

It had been far too long since she left base, since she went on a mission and Widowmaker could feel it under her skin, it made her uncomfortable. She didn't even have Lena to keep her entertained as often as before, as the girl was splitting her time up now that Winston was available. It wasn't until she met Lena that she had realised how tedious her routine was.

“Right.” Winston murmured to himself before raising a hand to the dashboard in front of him, fingers hovering over a dial. “I believe we’re ready.” There was a hint of trepidation in his voice. It _ probably _ didn't help that people had turned up to watch.

He hesitated for a few more moments before giving in and twisting the dial, the chamber giving out a low whirring noise as power began to run through it. Both Widowmaker and the crowd watched closely, waiting for anything to happen. Just under a minute after switching on the power, a blue silhouette began to form in the centre of the chamber. This had happened the previous times as well, no one was celebrating just yet.

The silhouette slowly became more defined, showing Lena in her flight suit. Lena peered at them through the glass, obviously waiting just like the crowd, not wanting to move until she was certain that she was stable. Widowmaker hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath until Winston finally spoke, using the microphone built into the dash to speak to Lena inside.

“Alright, could you try removing your gloves for me, Lena? If this has worked, you should be able to remove them just like the last time.” 

Lena nodded as she tugged on the fingertips of her gloves, successfully removing them and dropping them onto the floor in front of her. The last test run, a few moments after she removed them, they had reappeared back on her hands before she disappeared herself. This time the gloves stayed where they were. She looked up at where Winston was behind the glass, watching hopefully as he studied the data he was receiving from the chamber. Lena began rocking back and forth on her feet, obviously impatient. 

“Everything alright, luv?” Normally by now she would have disappeared again, but Winston wasn't celebrating just yet. Another few moments of silence.

“Everything… seems to be working. We’ll just have to wait and see if this holds.” He seemed pleasantly surprised. 

Lena took a seat, sitting cross legged on the floor as they began waiting it out. Members of the crowd began to filter out as it became obvious with time that Lena wasn't going anywhere. Hours passed and it was just Winston and Widowmaker still watching her. 

“I think we can call this a success, luv. I know you want to be sure but I don't think I'm going anywhere… plus I want to finally take a shower and get out of this stupid flight suit.” Lena said, tugging at the front of the suit. Winston looked over the data one more time before giving a grunt of assent. 

He got up from where he had been sitting behind the dashboard, grabbing a box he had been keeping under his desk just for Lena once they had recovered her. Winston used the sliding compartment in the wall of the chamber to pass through the box without risking Lena disappearing. 

“I don't think we can let anyone in or out to see you for at least another twenty four hours, I couldn't be sure it's safe. The bathroom is built into the back over there, you can take a shower and we’ll wait for you.” He said, gesturing with a quick flick of a finger to the door at the back of the chamber. 

“Did you get me everything I asked for, luv?” Lena giggled, eyeing the box as Winston let out a low sigh.

“I did. Everything you asked for is in the box.” 

Lena excitedly picked up the box from where he had pushed it through to her and carried it with her to the bathroom. Widowmaker made to leave now that she was sure that Lena had been successfully recovered from the Slipstream when Lena called out to her.

“Wait! Don't go just yet.” Lena’s head was peering out from behind the door to the bathroom. Widowmaker hesitated by the doorway to the lab for a few seconds before giving into Lena’s request and leaning next to Winston’s desk. 

The pair of them waited in silence as Lena took her shower. It was only about ten minutes later that Lena popped back out of the bathroom wearing something that made Widowmaker want to carve her own eyes out. She had changed from the blue Overwatch flight suit into an oversized onesie with a fabric pattern of pepperoni pizza. Lena had decided to match the pyjamas with a pair of dinosaur slippers. 

“ _ What _ are you  _ wearing? _ ” 

“Something I've wanted to wear for months, luv! I’ve missed onesies and slippers so much! I asked Winston to get me these ones from the British Museum of Natural History. Always wanted a pair.” Lena lifted her feet off the ground, admiring the slippers. Widowmaker watched on in horror. 

“Non.” She stated, causing Lena to look up at her. 

“What?” 

“You are not wearing that. I will buy you new clothes.” Widowmaker folded her arms across her chest, continuing to stare at Lena in disgust for a brief moment before leaving the lab entirely, leaving her standing in the chamber, confused. 

  
  


It was a surprise to Widowmaker when she heard that Lena had asked for her to come visit her first thing the next day. When she returned to the lab, she was somewhat pleased to see that Lena was no longer sporting the pepperoni pizza onesie of the previous day, having switched into grey sweatpants and a plain white shirt but that feeling disappeared when she saw that Lena was still wearing those  _ awful  _ slippers. 

“Hiya, luv! How’re you?” Lena chirped, pressing herself up against the glass, it reminded Widowmaker of an excited puppy. 

“Fine.” 

“Well, I asked you to come down here cause Winston said he's finally comfortable with letting people in here and I thought you could come visit me inside here.” Lena babbled, completely ignoring Widowmaker’s response to her question. Winston appeared behind her, heading over to the dashboard.

“Based on the data I've collected, we should be able to go inside now. She’ll remain stable as long as she doesn't leave the chamber.” Winston confirmed, flicking a few of the switches so that the door opened for them. He lead the way, entering first. 

Lena was practically bouncing with excitement, clapping her hands as they got closer. She first leapt up and clung to Winston wrapping herself around him in a tight hug and burying her face in his fur. Widowmaker watched on curiously as Winston ran a large palm down Lena's back, patting lightly. Lena eventually let go, dropping back down to the ground and turning to face her. 

“Come here, luv.” Lena held out her arms briefly, waiting for Widowmaker to come to her. She stood there and stared at Lena, refusing to move. 

Lena let out a dramatic sigh before crossing the room to wrap her arms around Widowmaker's hips. She pressed her face against Widowmaker's collarbone and squeezed lightly. It took a few seconds for Widowmaker to raise her arms and return the embrace, eventually bringing a hand up to Lena’s hair, twisting it slightly around her fingers. The hug was almost nice, soothing even for Widowmaker - until Lena’s hands slid down her lower back, taking a handful of her rear and squeezing lightly. She could feel her face heat up slightly as she processed what Lena had just done before her hand met the girl’s cheek. 

“Ow!” Lena squeaked, clutching her face and backing away. Widowmaker simply smirked, turning on her heels and walking away, leaving Lena behind with Winston. 

“And that's supposed to be you on  _ good  _ behaviour?” 

“ _ Yes! _ ... Sorta.”  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A friendly reminder to readers that I write as a hobby in my free time. Updates may or may not be fast depending on other obligations in my life or in my beta reader's life. Please remember to be understanding. :D  
> In the event that you want to support me, or update faster than I have, I can be reached here: https://twoheartedalien2-0.tumblr.com/supportme  
> Thank you!


	9. Let Lena Eat!

Lena excitedly pressed herself up against the glass of the containment chamber, the right side of her face flattened against it as she tried to get a better look. She had begged Winston to get her all the foods she had been craving since the launch of the Slipstream and there were  _ a lot _ of things she had missed. Her breath began to fog up the glass as she saw Winston cross the lab with a big brown bag presumably filled with her food. Lena backed away as he approached the chamber, unlocking and pushing the door open, and her eye rolled back into her head with pleasure when the smell of Chinese food hit her nose. 

“Here you go, Lena, enough Chinese food to feed a small army.” Winston said as he placed the bag down on the table in the middle of the room. 

Lena crossed the room in a few quick skips, taking a seat in one of the chairs and tearing the bag open, pulling out the boxes. Winston stood nearby, giving her a brief fond, but disgusted look before exiting the chamber, closing the door behind himself. 

Winston went back to his work designing what he was going to call the Chronal Accelerator as Lena ate her food. A muffled  _ fuck _ made him glance over his shoulder, making him smile as he saw Lena shovelling as many noodles as she could into her mouth with each bite, her eyes closing with bliss after each swallow. Winston shook his head and returned to his work, doing his best to ignore the distractions from inside the chamber. 

“Athena-”

_ “Mmmmmm!” _

“Could you please-” 

_ “Ohhh that's good.” _

“Could you please bring up-”

_ “Mmmmmmmm! _ ” 

“Lena.”

“ _ Mmmm I missed you sooo much - “ _

“Lena!” He shouted over his shoulder, his fists hitting the keyboard in frustration. Lena stared back at him, eyes wide as she slurped up the rest of the noodle that had been hanging out of her mouth. “I understand it’s been a while but please tone it down? I'm trying to design the equipment that will let you out of this chamber.” 

“Whoops, sorry luv!” She replied sheepishly, the apology muffled by the food still in her mouth. 

There were a few short minutes of relative silence throughout the lab which allowed Winston to relax and return his work on the chronal accelerator. He’d just finished soldering a particularly delicate connection, when an excited squeal shattered his concentration, making him jump. He let out a resigned sigh as the noises started up again, this time Lena was getting excited over some side dish that he didn't recognise. He grunted as he got up from his chair and moved to the opposite side of the lab, trying to create as much distance between them as possible. In hindsight, soundproofing the chamber would have been a good idea. 

A particularly loud moan came from the containment chamber just as Widowmaker entered the lab, a rectangular box under her arm. She stopped in her tracks, turning to look at him with a eyebrow raised. Winston could only offer her a shrug before returning to his work. 

She unlocked the door to the chamber and pushed it open, stepping inside. Lena was sat at the table, her mouth filled with food, eyes closed with bliss and her head tilted back. Widowmaker stared at her for a brief moment in amusement before dropping the box on the only clear space on the table, startling Lena and causing her to jump in her seat, choking on the food in her mouth. She took a seat across the table from Lena, watching with a slight smile as she caught her breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. Once she had recovered from her fright, Lena's eyes locked onto the box in between them.

“You brought Monopoly, luv?” Her face twisted into a crooked smirk as she raised her chopsticks in greeting, “You must _ really _ like me.” She said before shovelling another lot of noodles into her mouth.

Widowmaker scoffed, pushing some of the food boxes aside to make room for the board game, “And why is that?” 

“Takes forever to play a game of Monopoly, must want to spend lots of time with me.” Lena replied with a wink, earning another eyeroll from Widowmaker. 

Hours passed as the two of them played the game and the frustration building within Widowmaker was palpable. She had never been good with losing and she was landing on  _ every single one _ of Lena’s properties which was a  _ lot of them _ . Lena let out a giggle as she landed on Boardwalk and Widowmaker scowled venomously, her lips pursing as she stared at the board. 

“Non.” Widowmaker looked up at where Lena was sitting, a cheeky grin plastered on her face, “That is not possible.” 

“Sorry, luv. You're losing. Can't cheat this time.” She let out another giggle, running her fingers through her hair. “Be right back, I'm gunna go to the bathroom.” Lena stood up from her chair and Widowmaker visibly cringed at the sight of the pepperoni onesie having made a repeat appearance, “Athena luv! Make sure she doesn't cheat, keep an eye on her.” She called out as she entered the bathroom. 

Widowmaker looked up at the camera on the ceiling, almost having a staring contest with it before leaning across the table and swiping as much cash from Lena’s side as she could, topping it up with some from the bank and reorganising the table to look like nothing had changed. She looked up at the camera once more as if she were challenging the AI to question her actions.

Lena popped back out of the bathroom and skipped back over to the table, taking her seat again. She studied the table warily, glancing at Widowmaker with narrowed eyes. 

“You did something. It looks different.” Lena said with a pout.

“Did not.”

“Did too! Athena! Did she cheat?”

“I watched her like you asked Lena, she did not cheat.” Athena replied nonchalantly, earning a small smirk from Widowmaker. 

“You are constantly questioning my character, chèrie. What  _ must _ you think of me?” She said, bringing a hand to her chest and sporting a mock frown.

Lena rolled her eyes as she picked up the dice and continued the game. When it came to the final count it was clear that  _ despite _ her cheating, Widowmaker had, indeed lost after all. Widowmaker stared at the board in silence, her lips pulled into a tight line. She looked up at Lena whose face was sporting a smug grin, obviously pleased with herself for having won. Lena watched with wide eyes as Widowmaker let out a slow breath, hooked her fingers under the board and overturned it, flicking the pieces into Lena’s lap. 

“Oi!”

She topped it off by tossing one of the dice on the table at Lena, stifling a laugh when it got stuck in Lena’s unruly hair, and watching with a small smile as she desperately pawed at her hair to find it. 

“Sore loser, luv?” 

“You must have cheated somehow.” 

“And  _ I  _ think you're just projecting.” 

  
  


Winston was up late at night, being as quiet as he possibly could as he tapped away at his keyboard. He was pulling long, late hours to get Lena out of the chamber as fast as possible. She would never admit to hating being stuck in there, Winston knew she wouldn't want to seem ungrateful and he knew if he stayed quiet as he worked, she wouldn't know the hours he was pulling to do this. 

He was close to finishing, it would only be a few more days before he could have a final product. The prototypes he'd produced were close but not quite what he was looking for to allow her to use the chronal accelerator. He had to hold the device underneath the light of the monitors, the lights had been switched off hours ago for Lena to be able to sleep. Winston rubbed at his eyes behind his glasses. It was 3:34am but he would push through until he couldn't anymore. 

“Winston, you need to rest. I'm sure Lena would understand,  _ if not encourage _ , that you need to sleep.” Athena said, the volume of her projected voice pitched low to avoid stirring Lena. 

“The faster I work, the faster Lena leaves the containment chamber and the faster she gets back to living her life. Lena has been stuck for over a year and it is my fault, I should have stopped them from launching the Slipstream. It wasn't ready.” Winston sighed and looked back down to the device in front of him, dropping his tools onto the desk. 

“We have discussed this, Winston. You were not the only person involved in that decision. Jack Morrison would have pushed for the launch even if you disagreed. Lena feels the same way and does not hold it against you. Now, get some rest.” 

Winston let out a slow sigh, scratching at his forehead. He was beginning to give into Athena’s demands when he heard yelling from inside the chamber. 

“Athena, the lights!” Winston said urgently he unlocked the door and entered the chamber, finding Lena shouting from where she laid in her bed. 

The lights flickered on as he crossed over to Lena’s bed. Her face was twisted as if she were in pain, her yelling incoherent. Winston reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her writhing. Lena's eyes opened at the contact, her breathing sharp and ragged.

“Lena?” He asked, watching Lena closely as she caught her breath, running her hands through her sweaty hair. 

“Sorry, Winston, luv. Did I wake you?” 

Winston relaxed, giving a soft smile.  _ Of course she thinks about someone else before herself _ , he thought.

“Don't worry about that. Nightmares?” He asked. Lena shuddered and nodded in reply. 

Winston reached out and pulled her close, hugging her against his chest. He could feel her taking in long deep breaths as he ran his large palm up and down her back, attempting to soothe her. It wasn't the first time she’d had a nightmare since being pulled out of the Slipstream and Winston doubted it would be the last. Knowing what Lena was like, she would pretend until the very end that nothing was wrong. She had made him promise to not let Widowmaker know about the issues she was having. 

“Thank you, luv.” Lena murmured against his chest.

“Always.” 

 

Lena sat on the gurney cross legged, feeling exposed as a gentle breeze hit her back through the gap in her hospital gown. She scratched at her head, trying to wrap her head around the design that Winston was presenting her with before they rolled her into surgery 

“So…” She started, raising a hand to point a finger at the tablet Winston was holding up, “You’re gunna cut me open and stick that in my chest?” 

“Yes, it's the most stable way for us to keep you anchored here in the present. The chronal accelerator will go over the top like a vest and dock into the implant. Any questions?” Winston examined her face closely. Lena's nose wrinkled at the thought of having a red glowing torch stuck in her chest but she shrugged.

“Could have chosen a better colour, luv but I'm ready. Just knock me out and stick it in me.” Lena said with a crooked grin, looking over Winston’s shoulder at where Widowmaker was standing, watching them. 

“Just lay back on the table then.” Winston said, waving in the doctors. 

The containment chamber had been turned into a operating room so Lena wouldn't have to leave the chronal field. As Lena laid there, watching the doctors move around her, anxiety began bubbling up inside her, her eyes seeking out Widowmaker in the corner of the room. It was clear from the way she stood that Lena wasn’t the only one feeling nervous. She stuck out her hand, gesturing with the curl of her fingers for Widowmaker to come closer. Her arms were crossed against her chest and her walk was stiff as she moved closer. Lena reached out and took hold of her hand, surprised by how cold Widowmaker’s skin was, they'd never had proper skin on skin contact before now. 

“Luv, can you do me a favour? My clothes are on the table over there, can you take care of them for me? Got something important to me in the pockets, wanna make sure they don't lose it.” Lena offered her a warm, reassuring smile. She knew that Widowmaker would never admit it, but she was clearly uncomfortable about the situation. Widowmaker gave a quiet scoff, averting her eyes but the squeeze of her hand was enough. 

“I do not know why you would want to waste my time with such a thing but... fine.” 

“Thanks, luv. Don't know where I'd be without you.” She watched as there was the tiniest flush on Widowmaker’s cheeks, so small she wasn't  _ really  _ sure it was there, then she smirked down at Lena before flicking lightly at her cheek. 

“You would be lost, chèrie.” Widowmaker withdrew her hand and stepped away, collecting the clothes that Lena had left folded on a nearby table. 

She hovered in the chamber for a moment as the doctors put Lena under, but forced herself out. Widowmaker debated internally whether to find out what Lena had meant by ‘something important in the pockets’. She hesitated for a brief moment but gave in, digging her hand into the pockets of the sweat pants. It took a moment but her fingertips found a metal linked chain. She pulled it out of the pocket and examined it. It was a piece of jewellery, a silver locket. 

Her face pinched with confusion. She had never seen Lena wear jewellery beside her helix piercings, let alone this piece. She pursed her lips, considering for a few seconds before popping open the locker, revealing two pictures inside. The picture on the left was of a woman who looked a lot like Lena holding a toddler in her lap, the photo on the right was of a man, it looked as if it were cut out from a larger photo. Widowmaker closed it again and flipped it over in her hand, finding an engraving on the back,  _ 2055\.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twoheartedalien - Yesterday at 7:17 AM  
> Lmfao I typed weirdo into my sentence instead of lab because your notification popped up and I read it  
> Nox - Yesterday at 7:18 AM  
> lmfao  
> "Widow entered the weirdo" actually works if said weirdo is Lena  
> twoheartedalien - Yesterday at 7:18 AM  
> Lmfaoooo  
> Widow entered the weirdo from behind  
> Nox - Yesterday at 7:19 AM  
> lmfaoo


	10. Confessions - but not the gay kind.

Widowmaker sat in her room, trying to pass the time until the Lena’s surgery would be over. She had Lena’s clothes folded in a pile on her desk, the locket she had found resting in the palm of her hand. The deleted and redacted sections of Lena’s Overwatch file seemed to make a little more sense after seeing it but it left Widowmaker with new questions.

She placed the locket back in the pocket she in which she found it, and then stared at the clothes that Lena had asked Winston to buy her. Widowmaker pursed her lips for a moment before searching the clothes for the sizes. _These will have to go._

It was better than sitting here and waiting for news.

 

Lena spent the first twelve hours after waking up from surgery feeling groggy and passing in and out of consciousness. She could vaguely remember doctors coming in to check up on her and a few different visitors, but it wasn't until it was late at night that the world started making more sense to her. Lena brought her hand up to her face, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hands, feeling the dull ache in her chest and letting out a low groan.

“Finally awake, chèrie?”

She blinked a few times, turning her head to look at Widowmaker sitting beside her bed on a small fold out chair. Lena licked her lips, realising how dry her throat and mouth were.

“Water.” She reached an arm out towards Widowmaker who placed a small styrofoam cup between her thumb and fingers. Lena downed the water as soon as she brought it to her lips, hearing a short chuckle from beside her as she did.

“I bought you some new clothes.” Widowmaker said as Lena brought her arm up to her mouth, wiping her lips on the back of her wrist.

“New clothes? Winston already got me what I asked for.” Lena looked back over to where Widowmaker sat, seeing the small smirk on her face.

“I have bought you some things that will look… less hideous.” Widowmaker’s grin at the sight of Lena’s pout was wide enough to show some teeth, the first time Lena had seen something like that from her. Something in her warmed at the sight.

“Guess I'll wear them if it makes you happy, luv.” Widowmaker's face returned to its normal neutral, cool expression, lips pressed tightly together.

“Your choice in clothing is an offense to fashion. And France.” She said, earning a small giggle from Lena. 

There was a brief silence between them for a moment before Widowmaker stood up, crossing over to the table where she had left Lena’s folded clothes, picking up the locket from the top of the pile.

Widowmaker returned to her bedside, placing the locket in the palm of her hand, silently asking a question. Lena let out a slow breath, turning the jewellery over in her hand, wetting her lips as she prepared to speak.

“My parents died when I was five. Car accident. I was in the car when it happened but a person passing by pulled me out before it caught fire. Got put in foster care and my first foster mum gave me this. Found some good photos from a photo album and stuck it in this for me…. I don't really wear jewellery like this but I always carry it with me.” Lena said, opening and closing the locket with the flick of her thumb nervously.

Widowmaker’s wondered why that would be removed from Lena’s file, that it didn't quite make sense. She was jolted from her thoughts when she heard sniffling from in front of her. She looked up, seeing Lena rubbing at her eyes and trying to control herself, trying to stifle the tears. There was a moment of hesitation before Widowmaker reached out, pulling Lena’s hands away from her face. They made brief, slightly uncomfortable eye contact before Widowmaker used her thumb to brush some of the tears off her face. Lena leaned into the touch, letting her eyes flutter closed.

She kept her hand cupping Lena’s cheek until she seemed to calm down, the tears coming to a stop, only then did she withdraw.

“Thanks for listening, luv. I'll try out your clothes tomorrow.” Lena said, just louder than a murmur as she looked towards the bags of clothing by the door. “If I'm lucky, I might be able to leave… _this_ by the end of tomorrow.” She flicked her wrist to gesture to the containment chamber they were in. There was a short silence between them.

Widowmaker crossed her arms against her chest and rose from her seat, “I need to sleep, I will return tomorrow to check on your status.”

When she was close to the door, Lena piped up from where she laid in her bed, “Can you bring a set of cards tomorrow?”

Widowmaker arched her eyebrow as she looked over her shoulder at her, “Why?”

“Because we should play strip poker!” Lena gave her a cheeky grin.

“You are lucky that you are recovering or I would hit you. Again.”

 

Winston came into the containment chamber to visit Lena the following afternoon. He had been distant since her surgery, trying to finish his work on the actual accelerator as fast as Talon wanted it. They wanted Lena to begin her training as soon as she was physically able.

“So the doctors have told me that you are recovering well.” Winston said as he entered the chamber, waking to where Lena was sitting on the edge of her bed, swinging her legs.

Once the anaesthetic had worn off, everything had become much easier, including sitting up on her own. Lena waited patiently for Winston to continue talking, her fingers pulling at the sheets covering the mattress.

“Based on everything I've been told and my own information, we _should_ be able to try letting you out and seeing if the implant anchors you on its own in the next couple of hours. We’ll leave the chamber running so if it doesn't work, it will bring you back in there and we can make whatever adjustments we need to.” Winston watched as Lena nodded along as he spoke, processing the information he was giving her.

“Where will I go once I can leave on my own? Do I get my own room?” Lena reached up, brushing her fringe out of her eyes, making a mental note to get a haircut at the first opportunity.

“I believe that Widowmaker has been organising that for you from what I've been told. You would need to ask her to find out though. As much as I love you, Lena, we can't keep sleeping in my lab.” Winston chuckled lightly before turning and going back to his desk outside the chamber.

Lena did her best to pass the time as she waited for them to be ready to try the anchor. She read the newspapers that Widowmaker had brought her the previous night and had even started on a book that Winston had bought her as a welcome back gift. Her eyes kept finding the door, expecting Widowmaker to turn up at any moment.

A few hours eventually did pass, even if they felt like they were dragging along at a painstakingly slow pace. Winston unlocked the door and left it open, gesturing at her for her to come to the doorway. Lena threw the covers off her lap and jumped out of bed, almost hopping across the room. Immediately regretting it as there was a sharp ache in her chest. She was grateful for the sweatpants under her gown now.

“Okay, how about you try walking out now.” Winston said, watching Lena closely as she slowly stepped through the doorway as per his instructions.

Lena stopped just a metre outside the chamber, standing and waiting, wriggling her toes against the tiled floor in nervousness. They patiently waited for a few minutes and when it seemed she wouldn't be going anywhere Lena jumped up into Winston’s arms in celebration, ignoring the pain she earned for doing so. Lena closed her eyes and buried her face in his fur.

“Thank you so much, luv. I always knew you'd bring me back, didn't doubt once.” Lena smiled against him when she heard a chuckle from the doorway to the lab.

“I see it was a success.” Widowmaker said as Lena dropped down from where she had been clinging to Winston.

“Seems like it, I'm still here.” She beamed up at Widowmaker, bringing a closed fist up to her chest and tapping lightly against the implant before wheezing in pain. Widowmaker rolled her eyes.

“Try not to kill yourself just yet, chèrie.”

“Just yet? You wanna keep me around then?” Lena asked, resting her hands on her hips.

“Talon has invested too much money in you to have you die on us the minute you step out of the chamber.”

Lena simply stuck her tongue out.

“You can tell yourself that, luv.”

 

After one more insisted upon examination of the anchor implant in her chest, Lena was finally officially cleared to leave the lab and settle herself into her own room. She followed Widowmaker through the different floors of the base, watching her give a lazy tour of it all. Lena felt excitement bubble inside her chest as they got to the floor that her room would be on, immediately recognising it as the same floor that Widowmaker lived on herself.

As it turned out, their rooms were on opposite sides of the hall, five doors apart. It eased a bit of Lena’s anxiety, knowing Widowmaker would be close by, it was weird to trust an assassin _this_ much. Widowmaker unlocked the door to Lena’s room with a key before handing it off to her to keep. Lena peered inside, wide eyed, her face splitting into a grin when she saw what was inside.

“Luv!” She exclaimed, trying to find the words as she dashed inside, “How’d you get all this stuff?”

Widowmaker had managed to locate all of her old posters and even the old Union Jack bedspread that she had in her room back at the Swiss headquarters. She reached out to the bed, running her hand up and down the bedspread, bouncing with excitement when she realised it felt the exact same as how she had left it. It wasn't just a replacement, Widowmaker had found the real thing.

“How'd you do this, luv? They should have thrown all my stuff out.” Lena asked, looking back at where Widowmaker leaned against the doorframe.

“I had a little help from Winston. He informed me of where he had kept a box of your belongings that he saved from your old room. I simply went and retrieved it.” Widowmaker felt a little warmth in her chest at the way Lena looked at her, she swallowed it down, averting her eyes briefly.

“Did you manage to find my old jacket by any chance? Did Winston save it?” Lena’s eyes almost sparkled with hope.

“Non. Désolée.” Widowmaker stepped further into the room as Lena’s shoulders slumped slightly with disappointment.

“That's alright, luv. You already went above and beyond with all this. Don't think I can thank you enough.” Lena’s mouth turned up in a smile as she threw her arms around Widowmaker's waist, hugging her so tightly that the area around her implant hurt with the pressure, resting her face against her collarbone.

Widowmaker swallowed thickly before returning the embrace, letting one hand card through the annoyance’s hair.

 

It didn't take long for Lena to pass out from exhaustion that night. Widowmaker had sat on the office chair for Lena’s desk while she sat on her bed. Lena had been _so_ tired she had fallen asleep while in the middle of a ramble to her about what it was like to fly fighter jets. Widowmaker adjusted the chair to face the right direction and tucked Lena into her bed, pulling the bedspread up to above her shoulders and flicking the light off before exiting the room.

Widowmaker had been waiting for Lena to be asleep to have a conversation with Winston on her own, without any possible interruptions. He was still working on the prototype for the chronal accelerator as she had expected. It was hard not to notice how little sleep Winston was getting over helping Lena. Once she entered the lab, she cleared her throat to gain his attention.

“Oh, hello Widowmaker.” Winston said, clearly surprised to see her in his lab at this time of night. It was well into the am.

“I have a question to ask you.” Widowmaker replied flatly.

“Oh? What is it?” He turned his chair to face her, his face pinched with curiosity.

“You were the one to change Lena’s Overwatch records, were you not?” She could see him swallow.

“I was.” There was a palpable silence between them before he spoke again. “Does she know?”

“I have not told her it was you, no.”

“Keep it that way, please. She would feel embarrassed. I don’t want her thinking that I was pitying her by clearing her records like that.”

“But you did it for her, yes?” Widowmaker pursed her lips, eyes examining Winston closely.

He sighed and sat up straighter. “I did.”

“I will not tell her that you did. But you _will_ tell me what was in those files.”

  
  



	11. Not Everything Always Works Out

“What do you want to know?” 

“Everything that was redacted and deleted from those files.” Widowmaker watched as Winston’s shoulders slumped forward, letting a long, slow sigh.

“How much do you know already?” 

“Lena told me about her parents, how they are… deceased.” She forced out the word, discomfort crawling under her skin at the thought.

“I see, so she didn't tell you what came after?” He asked, scratching at his forehead and adjusting his glasses on his nose. The look she gave him in return was answer enough for that question. “She is very ashamed of what happened after that. Lena was bounced from foster home to foster home, like many other orphans without a family to take care of them, and eventually she gave up. She started living on her own and committing small time crime to keep herself afloat. Eventually Lena got picked up for stealing cars in order to sell them for parts. I cleared her file so she could get some peace from it, which is why I did it without telling her.” 

Widowmaker nodded along with it, crossing her arms against her chest and tapping her index finger against her elbow. She wasn't sure what she had expected but it certainly wasn't a small time criminal record, she had thought it would be more interesting than that. 

“You would like me to keep this to myself?”

“Yes. If Lena knew I did this, all she is going to see is that I pitied her. She hates feeling pitied.” Winston watched her closely for a reaction. 

“I will keep your secret. There is no point in her or Talon knowing about your actions.” Widowmaker nodded to herself before turning on her heel and heading for the door. She paused, a thought hitting her at the last second.

“Lena asked about this jacket, do you know what and where it is?” 

“Oh, her RAF jacket? It should be in the Overwatch storage facility that I sent you last time. It should have been in the box I sent you to get but I’m guessing it wasn’t. It should be in there… somewhere... And Widowmaker?” He paused, waiting for her reaction. She met his eyes, and he gave her a small, but sincere smile, “Thank you.” 

  
  


Lena's disappointment at the fact that Widowmaker hadn't found her RAF jacket stuck with Widowmaker more than she would have ever expected. It had even to lead her to ask both Winston  _ and _ Sombra for help to track down the jacket. The choice to come to Sombra was one she was beginning to regret. 

“So, amiga,” Sombra started as she searched through Overwatch’s storage inventory, “You like her enough to break into Overwatch  _ twice _ ?” 

Widowmaker let out an aggravated sigh, rolling her eyes at the teasing. She decided to ignore the question entirely. 

“You know, until you met Lena, I had no idea you were gay, chica.” She gave Widowmaker a cheeky grin and only received a cold stare in return. 

Sombra twisted in her seat, going back to searching through the inventory. The silence between them only lasted another half minute before Sombra chose to open her mouth again. 

“I'm just saying,” Sombra started, dragging out the end of the word, “you're being  _ very nice  _ to Lena for someone who  _ doesn't care _ .” 

“Non.” Widowmaker replied curtly. 

“No?” Sombra looked up at her.

“We are not discussing this, there is  _ nothing _ to discuss. Now find me the jacket.” She gave Sombra a long, harsh stare until the hacker cackled and gave in, returning to her work for good and finally finding where the jacket had been stored. It had been removed from the box that she had taken and stored separately for some unspecified reason. 

Widowmaker headed for the door, pulling it open and walking down the hall when she heard Sombra call out to her.

“Don't think this means we won't be talking about your girl later, araña!” 

  
  


Breaking into the storage facility for a second time had been just as simple as the first. The jacket had been stored away on a shelf just behind the one where the box had been the last time. Why they had been separated, Widowmaker still didn't know but it didn't really matter. She just wanted to get rid of the feeling that had been nipping at her since she saw Lena’s disappointment over not having the jacket. 

Widowmaker returned to base in the early hours of the morning, jacket in hand. It would be much too early for Lena to be awake. She had been sleeping for upwards of twelve hours a night since the anchor had been implanted in her chest, so it would provide her the ability to give her the jacket without any fanfare. She didn't know how to feel about Lena’s gratitude and physical affection. Lena had always been a physical person as Widowmaker learned from before she was pulled out of the Slipstream, but that continued after as well, particularly whenever Lena wanted to thank her for something. 

It made her feel… warm? She didn't know how to describe the feeling. It wasn't a  _ bad  _ feeling, Widowmaker just didn't know what to do with it. It was outside of her training, her conditioning.

Widowmaker stood outside Lena’s door, slowly turning the door handle and slipping inside. It was dark and Lena was still asleep as expected. Tousled hair fell across her closed eyes, her lips turned up in a slight pout, and Widowmaker resisted the urge to cross over and brush the unruly hair away. She hung the jacket over the back of Lena’s desk chair to leave it for her for when she woke up, before striding out briskly.

It was in the early afternoon when Lena came to see her. Widowmaker had taken the morning to sleep in before having her lunch in her room as she always did. She had only just finished her tray of food when there was a knock on the door. Widowmaker knew it had to be Lena, no one else bothered to visit her in her room.

“Come in, Lena.” She called out, rotating slightly in her chair to face the door. 

Lena walked in, beaming at her with a bright smile, sporting the jacket Widowmaker had stolen for her the night before. She watched as Lena ran her palms up and down the front of the jacket, as if she were waiting for her to say something about it. After several moments of silence between them, Lena gave a cute pout.

“C’mon, luv. I know you got this for me. Don't act as if you don't recognise it.” 

Widowmaker exhaled slowly, standing up from her chair and giving her a gallic shrug, “You wanted the jacket. I retrieved it.” She arched a brow down at Lena as the grin returned in full force, blinking in surprise as the girl stepped into her space.

Suddenly there were warm hands on her cheeks, Lena’s skin incredibly hot on her own, a pleasant heat that made Widowmaker lean into the touch. There was a brief moment were Lena’s eyes locked onto her own before Widowmaker felt her lips against hers. She stiffened in shock, not having expected the kiss at all. Widowmaker looked down at Lena, who had her eyes closed and was leaning up on her toes to be able to maintain the contact, before dipping her own head to make it easier on Lena. Wiry arms slung around the back of her neck, and  Widowmaker felt her arms come up and settle around Lena’s waist, pulling her closer. 

Widowmaker kissed back, feeling Lena’s lips sliding over her lower lip. Lena’s mouth was hot, her hands were hot, her body against her was hot. She could feel her heart rate picking up, it beating hard against the inside of her chest. 

It was painfully overwhelming. 

Without thinking, she put a hand on Lena’s hip and forced her back with a hard push, causing her to stumble towards the door. Lena stared at her with wide eyes before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, a bright red flush taking over her cheeks. She stammered out a desperate series of apologies as she scrambled for the door, leaving Widowmaker in her room alone, trying to calm herself down.

 

Dr Angela Ziegler downed the last dregs of her fifth coffee of the evening. She hazarded a glance at the time and let out a sigh as she saw it was well into the early hours of the morning. She dropped her pen and brought her hands up, rubbing at her temples, grimacing as she realised she had been working on the same paper since the early afternoon since there hadn't been any medical emergencies to interrupt her.

“Fareeha will be worried.” Angela murmured to herself as she began cleaning up her desk. There was a short knock at the door to her office. “Ach Scheisse, jetzt noch?” She pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping whoever it is will leave her be.

“Angela? I know you're in there, I can see the light on under your door.” Jack Morrison.  _ Verdammt!  _

“Yes, come in, Jack.” She said, placing her bag on top of her desk, packing her belongings into it as he entered the office.

“Are you still in contact with Winston?” 

Angela drew her eyebrows together in confusion, Jack always behaved as if something was more serious than it was but this felt different.

“Winston? Yes, we send each other emails, why?” She brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ears.

“I always suspected that he left due to frustration over the decision to defund his search for Lena Oxton. I did believe his excuse when he resigned that he would be going on a long term fishing expedition up in the Arctic Circle to… relax as he put it.”

“But?” Angela knew Jack wouldn't be here just to ask how Winston was doing.

“Lena Oxton’s belongings that were logged into the storage facility have been taken, both the box and the jacket. It wasn't just one break and entry, it was two separate occasions where the security system was shut down for roughly thirty minutes.” 

“Winston has been sending me updates from his expedition, you believe he's been lying? He even sent me some  _ awful _ , cheesy pictures.” 

“I’d think it's an incredible coincidence for Oxton’s stuff to be stolen just months after  _ both _ Winston and Reyes decided to depart from Overwatch.” 

“So what exactly do  _ you _ believe is happening then?” Angela rested her hands on her hips. She was  _ exhausted  _ and ready to go home for the night, and she could really,  _ really do without Jack’s shit _ .

“I would put my money on Talon having recruited Winston - whether that was to specifically bring back Oxton or that was just an incentive. I believe they've also recruited Reyes as well, he hasn't been seen since he left, I would expect that he's gone underground with whatever he's doing now.” 

“And what proof do you have  _ other  _ than Lena’s belongings having been taken from the storage facility? Because that is far from conclusive and it just makes you sound paranoid, Jack.”

“Because I had our experts check the database for all the files to do with the Slipstream and Winston’s search for Oxton and  _ every single file _ has been replaced with files that posses useless, incorrect information.” 

Angela stared at him, left speechless by the idea that  _ Winston _ of all people would consider joining Talon but as she had time to process, it made more sense than she would have liked. He had always been incredibly fond of Lena. 

“Assuming you're right, what do you even propose?”

“I've already spoken with Ana, we’re going to find out what they're up to and put a stop to it.” He closed his eyes and grimaced, and Angela shuddered as they opened again with a hard, icy look in them.

“Even if it means the termination of all four involved.”

  
  
  
  
  



	12. Confessions - the gay kind.

Lena patiently sat on one of the benches in Winston’s lab, swinging her legs back and forth. The pain in her chest from the implant had almost completely dissipated now. She had been told it would be at least a few weeks before she would be ready to begin her training with some of the other Talon agents, but since she was much better, it was now looking more like a couple of days now.

Winston had Athena let her know that the first usable version of her chronal accelerator was ready to test via the new comms device she'd been given, and Lena had skipped down to the lab as soon as she got the message. Lena watched curiously as Winston made a few final adjustments to the straps based on her measurements before he turned to look at her, accelerator in his hands and a warm smile on his face.

“Ready to try this on and give it a test run?” He asked, walking towards her.

“Sure, luv. I'm ready to just about bounce off the walls, can't wait to have something to distract myself with.” Lena answered, a bittersweet smile tugging at her lips. She still hadn't told him what had happened between her and Widowmaker a few days ago.

“Something wrong?” Winston’s brow furrowed with concern.

“Nothing to worry about.” She sighed, shoulders slumping forward as Winston paused where he was before she stretched her arm out. “C’mon luv, give us the accelerator so we can get this over with already.”

Winston eyed her for a few more seconds before passing it over to her. Lena held it out in front of herself, giving it a good once over. It was a white outer casing, a hole in the middle clearly meant for where her implant connected, with red straps and matte black buckles. She made a pleased noise in the back of her throat, glad the entire thing wasn't black and red before undoing the buckles and pulling it onto herself, tightening it around her chest, waist and upper thighs.

“Fits just right, Winston.” She said, running her palms up and down the casing. “Time to give it a go? What do I do to y’know, make it work?” Lena pushed herself off the counter and rubbed her palms together excitedly.

The worry on Winston’s face melted into eagerness, “You just need to think.”

“Oi!” Lena put her hands on her hips, grinning.

“You know I didn't mean it like _that._ ” He chuckled.

"So... I just think?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I'm... not too sure what you mean, luv."   
  
"Okay. So, close your eyes.” He paused until she closed her eyes, “Now think of the biggest cake you've ever seen lying on the table across the room."   
  
"Cake? Ooo. What flavour is it?" She asked, one eye opening slightly to peek at him.

"Lena."

"Sorry, sorry. But seriously, what flavour?" Lena closed her eyes again.

"Green Tea. Now -"  
  
"But I _don't_ _like_ Green Tea!"  
  
"Oh for the love of - okay fine. Remember that redhead you once brought back to base? The one you were obsessed with for weeks? She's standing right there and you want to cop a feel. Go." Winston pointed out a spot across the room with an upturned hand.

There was a red streak of light behind her as Lena blinked forward across the room. She pawed at her accelerator before twisting on the spot to look at Winston, a disbelieving celebratory grin on her face.

He smiled back and gestured to the space beside him. “To recall, go back in time, you just think about where you used to be. Try come back to where you were before.”

Lena took a deep breath in, closing her eyes again and feeling a little motion sick as she was pulled back through her timeline. When she opened her eyes again she was standing back by the counter, a metre away from Winston.

“Very good. I would say I'm surprised you got it on the first go, but with the mention of a ‘hot girl’...” He trailed off with a shrug.

Lena raised a finger, opening her mouth to argue but couldn't find the words. She knew her reputation.

“No Widowmaker with you today?” He asked, watching Lena closely.

She shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, “Think she’s on a mission or something, haven't spoken to her in a couple of days.” Lena averted her gaze as she lied. If Winston knew that she wasn't telling the truth, he decided not to call her on it.

“Well, I've been told you should be good to begin training with your accelerator in a day or two, but don't let them make you if you're not ready, okay?”

Lena nodded, murmuring a thank you and giving him a swift hug before quickly exiting the lab, wanting to leave the conversation.

 

The following day Lena went to collect a uniform from the dispensary on the fourth floor. Lena didn't know what to expect but the last thing she wanted was to end up wearing… _whatever_ it is that Widowmaker wore. She figured that a skin tight sniper suit wouldn’t be her thing.

Lena had been told that she should to speak to Widowmaker before coming here, to get her to help with it, but she kept avoiding her, not certain she could even look her in the eye.

_You just had to go and cock it up, Oxton._

She sighed and forced Widowmaker out of her thoughts as she opened the door, making eye contact with the bored looking lady behind the counter. She looked Lena up and down with a critical eye before turning behind her, grabbing clothes off the shelf and tucking them under her arm in silence.

Lena watched as she began placing multiple pairs of pants, shirts, jackets and two pairs of combat boots on the counter top. Her eyebrows drew together in confusion as she stepped closer.

“But you don't even know my size?” Lena asked, confused.

“Honey, I've been doing this for _years_ , I don't need to be told your size. Bring them back if you have to... but you won't.” She gave Lena a tired, frustrated look before picking up a magazine and beginning to flip through it.

Lena swept all the clothes up into her arms, hugging them against her chest before leaving the dispensary. It was challenging to keep all the clothing in her arms as she went down a few flights of stairs to her floor. _Should’ve asked for a bag_ , she thought ruefully as she hopped on the spot and tried to juggle a boot back on top of the pile.

Once she made it back in her room (with all pieces), Lena dumped all the clothes onto her bed and began rooting through them. Unsurprisingly, they were all standard Talon colours, black and red. She figured she'd have to keep most of it but maybe she could have some leeway, some colour that _wasn't_ black or red. Lena had purposefully asked for her pulse pistols, vambraces and goggles to be white like her accelerator instead of black.

She picked out all of the black and red shirts, shoving them into a bag and leaving them in the corner. At the very least she could wear a shirt that was a different colour.

 

Lena’s first training session happened to be with Sombra. She'd been told it was meant to be with Widowmaker and had been relieved to see Sombra waiting for her in the training hall. They spent the better part of two hours pushing Lena and her accelerator to the extreme, to see how many blinks she could do consecutively, how far she could go in one blink, how far back in time she could recall. Of course Winston had done the math, he had theorised what the limits of the accelerator would be, but Talon wanted to see if his theories were correct.

After two hours, Lena laid down on the floor, looking up to the ceiling and trying to catch her breath. Her brand new uniform was soaked with sweat, the blue shirt she had picked out to wear underneath her Talon issue jacket and accelerator, completely drenched. Sombra stood over her, smirking down at her, not a hair out of place.

“Looks like we found your limits, rapido, good to know.” Sombra crouched beside her, “Now that I have your attention though, mind telling me what happened between you and the spider?”

Lena somehow managed to flush even more, turning her head to look away from Sombra, “Don’t know what you mean.”

Sombra chuckled, “I think you do. Are you avoiding her because you feel guilty?” She tilted her head to the side, watching Lena closely for her reaction.

Lena swallowed thickly, turning her head back to look up at the hacker, “Feel guilty about what?” She did her best to school her expression into a neutral mask.

“It's obvious you have a thing for her, chica. It's also obvious that she feels the same way about you. The conditioning or whatever,” Sombra casually shrugged, “Makes that hard for her. Also I have cameras everywhere, I know everything.”

Lena rolled her eyes at her smug expression, “And what exactly do _you_ think happened?”

“I _know_ you tried to kiss araña and she pushed you off. I think you took it as her not being interested. I also think you’re both a bit stupid, but that’s a different matter.”

“Even if that _were_ what happened, why do you even care? Thought _the Widowmaker_ wasn't meant to have any friends.” She narrowed her eyes at Sombra who raised an eyebrow in return.

“Whatever rapido, just trying to help. Go take a shower, you stink.” Sombra said, standing up and leaving Lena in the training hall alone.

 

Widowmaker was in the middle of disassembling Widow’s Kiss when there was a knock at her door. She looked up, eyebrows drawing together in confusion as she wondered who it could be. Lena hadn't spoken to her in days, not since she had run from Widowmaker’s room. The conflicting emotions that she had no idea how to deal with were made easier to sort out - or in her case ignore, now that Lena was avoiding her.

She stood up and opened the door, already feeling tension building in her shoulders when her eyes found Sombra. The hacker waited expectantly, hands on her hips, obviously wanting to be let in. Widowmaker rolled her eyes and stepped aside.

“What do you need, Sombra?” Widowmaker asked as Sombra stepped in. She had a feeling whatever it was would irritate her.

“Came to talk to you about rapido.” When Widowmaker arched her brow, Sombra clarified, “Lena. I know she came in here and kissed you the other day.”

She averted her gaze, ignoring the warm feeling in her cheeks, “That does not explain why you are here.”

“I think you know why I'm here. Lena feels guilty, you're feeling stupid. I already tried talking to her but she seems to think she's hurt you so it's time for you to get off your ass and go make it right.”

Widowmaker huffed a laugh, crossing her arms against her chest defensively, “What makes you think that you are correct in your assumptions?”

“The fact that you made me lie for you and train her today instead. You are _gay_ for her you dumb spider. Go and fix it. It's late at night and she should be asleep but she's been having nightmares and hides up on the roof. Go to her.”

Sombra stepped behind her, putting her spread palm in the middle of her back and pushed her outside the door.

  


Lena was on the rooftop like Sombra had told her she would be, sitting on the edge with her legs dangling off. Widowmaker stood by the door to the roof for a few moments, just watching, trying to process the feeling that was making her so uncomfortable. She sighed and forced herself to cross the roof to where Lena was sitting, the sound of her boots hitting the concrete getting the girl's attention when she got close. She looked up at Widowmaker and flushed brightly, turning her head away to hide her face.

“It is late.”

“Yeah, couldn’t sleep.”

“Nightmares?”

Lena hummed in response, falling silent as she continued staring out at the night sky. Widowmaker took a deep breath.

“Lena.”

“Yes?” Lena replied, speaking only just above a murmur. Widowmaker barely heard it over the blood pounding in her ears.

“Look at me, chèrie.” She waited patiently as Lena slowly forced herself to look up at her, struggling to make eye contact. Widowmaker offered her a hand to help her up.

Lena stared at it briefly before taking it and getting to her feet. Widowmaker could feel her sluggish heart rate pick up, her fingers shaking slightly. She withdrew her hand from Lena’s, instead reaching out to cup her face and cover her lips with her own. Lena made a muffled noise of surprise against her mouth, stiffening for a second before placing her hands tentatively on Widowmaker’s waist, fingers scratching lightly at her lower back.

Widowmaker gave control of the kiss over to Lena, not sure what to do. She felt Lena’s tongue swiping over her lower lip as Lena pulled her closer, before it entered her mouth and started petting at her own. An appreciative groan left her throat before she could stop it and Lena pulled away briefly to giggle, pressing another brief kiss at the corner of her lips.

“You alright, luv?” Lena pressed her forehead against Widowmaker’s, hands sliding up to her upper back, fingertips scratching at her shoulders now.

“ _Oui_.” Her lips felt puffy, but she pressed them against Lena’s once more before she could continue talking.

This kiss was rougher, deeper, flames licking up her spine as, one of Widowmaker’s hands moved to slide under the back of Lena’s shirt and jacket, touching bare skin. She tried to focus her mind on the moment to prevent herself from becoming overwhelmed again, thinking only about the feeling of Lena’s lips against her own. Her other hand snaked its way into tousled hair, tugging lightly on the strands between her fingers and pulling Lena’s lower lip between her teeth. Lena gasped and finally pulled away, trying to catch her breath.

“Right, luv. We should probably talk about this before… _that_ goes any further.” Lena said before taking a small step back, creating a little space between them.

Widowmaker nodded breathlessly before changing the subject. “You have been having nightmares?” she asked again.

“Uh… Yeah. Didn't want to bother you with them or nothing though.” Lena nervously rubbed at the back of her neck, her lips still shiny from their kissing.

Widowmaker grabbed Lena’s wrist and turned towards the door, lightly tugging as she did. “Come with me.”

  
  
  



	13. First Times

Lena walked at twice her usual pace to keep up with the hand pulling her along by her wrist. Widowmaker had lead her down the several flights of stairs back to the floor that their rooms were on. Her head tilted to the side in confusion as Widowmaker walked her past her own room and waited outside Lena’s room, waiting her to unlock the door. 

She dug into her sweatpants pocket for her key and unlocked it, letting Widowmaker go first. Lena stood by the doorway, closing the door with the kick of her foot behind her. Widowmaker walked to her bed, pulling back the crumpled covers, one eyebrow rising in distaste at the state of Lena's room, but she said nothing. 

“What're you doing, luv?”

Widowmaker kept silent as she stood in front of Lena, hands moving to unbuckle the straps of her accelerator and remove it from her chest.

“Luv?” She asked again, trying to not be embarrassed by the way her voice cracked.

“You are going to get some sleep. Get into bed.”

“But I'm not even tired!” Lena exclaimed, ignoring the dark rings under her eyes.

“Get into bed.” Widowmaker repeated.

Lena stared at her for a few moments, stunned into silence before shrugging off her jacket and shoes and climbing under the covers that Widowmaker had straightened out. She watched as Widowmaker turned the desk chair around to face the bed, taking a seat with her arms crossed against her chest. 

“And you're going to  _ watch _ ?” 

_ “Oui.” _

“Luv… that's creepy.” 

“You have nightmares because you are scared, I will sit here so you are not.” Widowmaker stated, shifting in her seat, looking uncomfortable. 

Lena stared at her, her mouth slightly agape before she let out a giggle. She lifted the covers off herself, shuffling over to the side and patting the spot beside her.

“You can't sit and stare at me all night, if you're going to to ‘watch over me’ or whatever, get in bed at least.” She said with a warm smile, patting the mattress again after Widowmaker briefly hesitated. 

Widowmaker got up from the seat, taking off her boots and turning off the light before slipping under the covers to lie beside her. Lena gave a pleased and wrapped her arms around her, resting her head against Widowmaker’s collarbone. Widowmaker stiffened under Lena for a moment, but then wrapped her arm around her waist, holding Lena against her. 

“Do you get nightmares at all, luv?”

Widowmaker hesitated for a moment, “Oui.” She paused, debating whether to say anything more, “Occasionally I have nightmares about from… when I arrived here. When that would happen, I would go see the Talon doctors to get my memory altered, and the nightmares would stop after.” 

Lena frowned, nuzzling her face into the crook of Widowmaker’s neck, “I'm sorry.” She murmured.

“You are sorry?” Widowmaker asked, puzzled.

“About what happened to you, what they did.” 

Widowmaker hummed. “I do not remember it, so there is no point dwelling on it.” 

Lena took that as Widowmaker’s way of saying she didn't want to talk about it, at least not yet. She had known what happened to Amèlie Lacroix from the hushed whispers back at Swiss HQ, but she hadn't considered exactly what must have gone into making the Widowmaker. It couldn't have been pleasant.

After a few minutes of nothing but quiet breathing between them Lena felt cool lips press against her forehead, knowing that Widowmaker had believed she'd fallen asleep. 

“That's gay, luv.” She murmured, squeezing slightly around Widowmaker. 

Widowmaker sighed, “Go to sleep, Lena.”

“Mmmm, can't sleep. Sing me something.” 

“Sing you something?” She repeated.

“Yeah, sing me a song, maybe it'll help me sleep. I dunno. Bet you'd have a nice voice with that accent of yours.” 

Widowmaker scoffed, a small smile playing on her lips, “I do not believe that is how it works, chèrie. I also do not know any songs.” 

“What?!” Lena popped up onto her elbows, straining her eyes to look at Widowmaker in the dark, the muted red light from her accelerator casting highlights on her face, “What do you mean you don't know any songs, luv? Everyone knows  _ something. _ ” 

Widowmaker pursed her lips before reaching out, pulling Lena back down to rest against her chest again, her fingers carding through her untamed hair. There was a minute of silence while she tried to think of something.

_ “Alouette, gentille alouette… Alouette, je te plumerai…”  _ She murmured in a singsong voice against her head, continuing and repeating the song over and over until she felt Lena relax on top of her. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep - the singing did seem to help somewhat, or Lena hadn't been honest about how tired she actually was. Widowmaker followed closely behind her, falling asleep to the rhythm of her soft breathing.

 

Widowmaker woke the next day to Lena wriggling against her. She cracked one eye open and peered down at the girl who seemed to be unable to get comfortable. One leg was slung over her thighs, an arm across her stomach and her head was still against her chest. Lena wiggled again, this time jostling Widowmaker as well.

“Lena. Lay still.” 

Bleary brown eyes looked up at her, and Lena’s hair even more messy than normal. 

It was far more endearing than it should have been.

“Oh, sorry luv, did I wake you?” She asked before pressing small kisses against her collarbone. 

“Oui.” Widowmaker grumbled, draping her arm over Lena’s shoulders to keep her still.

Lena laid still for another couple of minutes before she started wriggling again, drawing out a loud sigh from Widowmaker.

“You cannot keep still, can you?”

“Sorry… I'm bored.” Lena whined, head slumping against Widowmaker’s shoulder. 

“Go run drills in the training hall. I am sure there is something downstairs that will keep you entertained.” She replied with a huff, closing her eyes and choosing to ignore Lena’s murmured complaints.

Eventually Lena slipped out of bed, kissing Widowmaker on the forehead and tucking her back in before picking out her uniform from her wardrobe. Lena kept her back to her as she changed, and if Widowmaker snuck a peek while she did, she wouldn't know.

  
  


Lena left Widowmaker in her room to keep sleeping in peace. When she entered the training hall, Lena was surprised by how quiet it was. Normally at this hour it'd be packed with agents running drills like her. She walked over to the lockers, popping the door of her own open and taking out the protective case that contained her pulse pistols, vambraces and pulse bombs. Lena set herself up, adjusting her jacket sleeves to fold to the elbow to allow the vambraces to fit on her forearms.

When she entered the part of the hall with fake buildings used for live ammunition drills, Lena finally spotted someone else. From a distance all she could see that he was a tall, dark skinned man, wearing the standard black and red Talon issue uniform. As she made her way between the buildings and got closer, she finally recognised who he was.

“Gabe?” Lena called out, her voice echoing throughout the large hall.

The man twisted to look over his shoulder at her, “Lena?” He asked, one eyebrow raised.

“What're you doing here?” Lena grinned at him then did a double blink to close the distance between them, throwing her arms around him tightly.

He hugged her back, smiling as they pulled away.“I've left Overwatch, obviously. I was told you'd been brought back from the Slipstream but it's another thing to see you in person.” He brought his hands up, resting them on Lena’s shoulders and pushed her back just slightly to look at the chronal accelerator. “They haven't  _ done  _ anything to you, have they?”

“You mean other than implanting this thing in my chest? Nah. Nothing like  _ that _ anyway.” 

Gabriel hummed, considering that for a moment but not saying anything.

“Why’d you leave Overwatch? You loved that place so much.” Lena stared up at him, waiting curiously for his answer. 

“I left  _ because _ of my love for Overwatch. I can't say much more, not yet. Just trust me, okay?” 

Lena watched him for a moment before nodding quickly. “You training in here right now, Gabe? Got room for another?”

The serious expression on Gabriel’s face twisted into a smirk, “I might. You think you can handle it,  _ Tracer? _ ” 

Lena’s face split into a grin at the mention of her callsign, it'd been too long since she last heard that out loud. “You bet! You haven't seen me with my new toys.” 

The pair switched out to training ammunition, beginning their duel and taking advantage of the fake landscape, Lena choosing to stick to the higher ground and open spaces, while she looked for Gabriel in the narrow alleys that would benefit his choice in weapons. 

Bullets flew, and the little game went back and forth between them. The first few rounds, Gabriel got the jump on her but she had her recall, giving her a chance to get away from her mistakes. It wasn't until she got into a rhythm with her blinks and recalls, using them to flank Gabriel that she began gaining the upper hand on him.

Lena peeked out from behind a corner, ignoring the sharp sting of pain in her shoulder from the last blow Gabe had managed to land on her. An empty street greeted her, and she hunkered back behind her cover with a curse. 

_ The man must be made of smoke! _

Gabe’s speed and stealthiness had taken Lena by surprise. If she didn’t know better, she could’ve sworn that he was  _ faster _ than her. She breathed deeply, calming her racing heart and straining her ears as she sat still.

_ Gotcha!! _

She vaulted over the low overhang, pushing off from the ledge and blinking once. She twisted midair, grabbing a pulse bomb and sticking it on Gabe’s back and sending him sprawling to the ground. She blinked twice more, finding cover behind a tree and training her guns on him. 

“Bang, old man. You’re dead.”

Gabriel didn’t move. Lena frowned, snapping her pistols back into their vambraces. Did she hit him too hard? She walked towards him, kneeling down as she observed the rise and fall of his chest. A hand shot out, and Lena let out a surprised cry as she was unceremoniously pulled down and shoved to the ground. 

“ _ Oi!  _ No fair! _ ”  _ Lena whined, glaring up sideways at a sniggering Gabriel.

He laughed and let her up. “Gotta watch out for the element of surprise, kid. Constant vigilance!”

She stuck her tongue out at him as she picked up her pistols. “Well  _ excuse me _ , Mister Dead Man Walking, people that get blown up into chunks don’t make a habit of Frankenstiening themselves back into life.”

She held her indignant look for a few seconds as he stared back, before they both dissolved into giggles. 

Gabriel walked over to the corner and grabbed his bag, clapping Lena’s shoulder as he did so. He turned and smiled warmly. “This was fun, Oxton. I normally train alone, but for you I’ll make an exception. Feel free to join me anytime.”

 

Lena chose to wait until she returned to her room for her shower, quickly putting her gear back in its protective cases in her locker. When she got back to her room, she found Widowmaker gone, her bed made neatly and a note left on top of the pillow. She picked it up and unfolded the paper.

_ Chèrie, _

_ I have been called for a mission briefing. I will be back later. Get some more sleep, you will be joining us on this one. _

A purple lipstick mark signed off the note at the bottom of the page. Lena blushed as she let her fingers trace it and grinned in delight .

 

After Lena had taken a long, hot shower and changed into some comfortable sweatpants and plain t-shirt, she took Widowmaker’s advice, climbing into bed with still wet hair. She pulled the bed cover up to her shoulders, a silly smile brought to her face at the scent of Widowmaker still on her sheets. 

It was a few hours later, when there was a knock at her door, startling her awake. She gave a groggy ‘come in’ to whoever it was and sat up, rubbing at her eyes and adjusting to being awake as she saw Widowmaker step into her room and walk up to the bed. 

“Hello chèrie, sleep well?” She murmured, reaching out with one hand and stroking her cheek with the pad of her thumb. 

“Mmm, sorta. What's up, luv?” The hand on her cheek moved to carding through her hair and Lena let her eyes fall closed again with a pleased hum.

“We leave in the morning for our mission, very early. We will be going to Egypt. Do you wish for me to wake you?”

Lena reached her arm out from under the blankets and grabbed Widowmaker’s hand, bringing the palm to her mouth and pressing kisses to it.

“How ‘bout you come join me in bed? Make sure I don't have any more nightmares. You can wake me up all you want tomorrow if you stay.” 

Widowmaker arched a brow, a soft smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. With an exaggerated sigh she removed her boots, leaving them at the end of the bed before slipping under the covers like the night before, letting Lena curl up beside her.

 

They all met at the drop ship in the hangar so early that it was still dark outside. Even with her time in the Air Force and in Overwatch, Lena had never been a morning person, but waking up to Widowmaker curled around her did make it easier. Widowmaker was wearing her classic purple sniping suit and Lena let her eyes linger appreciatively. Sombra was the next person to show up, looking about as thrilled to be up at this hour as Lena felt. Gabriel also joined them, winking at her as he strolled in with a cup of coffee and bringing a smile to her face. 

The only person who met them at the drop ship that Lena didn't recognise was a very large, muscular dark skinned man. He had a strange metallic gauntlet on his arm that he seemed to move without any effort. The man didn't acknowledge Lena or her existence as he stepped onto the plane. She turned to Widowmaker, eyebrow raised, asking a silent question.

“Akande Ogundimu. Doomfist.” She murmured to Lena, giving her the answer she was looking for. She gave Lena a languid shrug before leading the way onto the ship. 

Lena buckled herself into her jumpseat, knee bouncing with excitement until Widowmaker’s hand came to rest on top of it to still her. 

She listened quietly, resting her head on Widowmaker’s shoulder as Widowmaker spent the better part of the flight explaining the mission plan, Widowmaker’s sultry voice and the darkened lighting in the cabin combining to help lull her to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twoheartedalien - Today at 10:55 AM  
> Lmfao  
> You're well past your time  
> You've wanted to die for the entire time I've known you  
> So  
> Your body doesn't seem to deliver  
> Nox - Today at 10:55 AM  
> Body is a dick  
> lmfao that sounds like a weird spoof on the your body is a wonderland song  
> your body is a dick  
> your body is a dick (I'll use my hands)  
> your body is a dick  
> :musical_note:


	14. Reunion

Lena's hands shook with anxiety and anticipation as she unbuckled the straps holding her into the jumpseat. They'd just touched down in Egypt after flying for nearly five hours, and this was nothing like the missions Lena had run for the RAF. She'd been nervous, sure, but she had hundreds of hours of training, and endless hours of practice flying fighter jets. Flying had been what she was naturally good at, not running on the ground missions. She tried to push down the fear as she exited the dropship. Her teammates would be there for her.

She flicked the pulse pistols out of their holsters and into her hands, which were clammy underneath the leather of her gloves. She double and triple checked the charge on her accelerator. She knew she would be fine, but the paranoia still ate at her. Widowmaker stood beside her for a moment, her eyes flicking over Lena before she nodded and fired her grappling hook, taking a perch up on a rooftop out of the way. 

The others, Sombra, Reyes and Doomfist, all went their separate ways and headed to the objectives assigned to them. Lena took a few deep breaths. She was meant to be the distraction with Widowmaker covering her from the skies as the rest of them secured the payload. She hadn't bothered asking what they were here to take, all she knew was that Overwatch had it and planned to transport it, giving Talon their opportunity to strike.

With a few deep breaths and some rapid blinks, Lena was finally in her designated position, waiting for the team Overwatch had sent to make their appearance. 

“Stay calm, Tracer.” She heard Widowmaker murmur through her earpiece. Widowmaker must have had her eye on her through her scope. Was her nervous shaking that obvious? 

“Trying my best, luv.” Lena replied, letting out a long sigh and relaxing her shoulders.

Finally after what seemed like hours, the Overwatch team appeared at the end of the road. Lena hadn't even considered what she'd feel when she saw them, whether she'd be able to even face them. There hadn't been room to question it but, seeing Mercy and Morrison, the first two people she recognised from this distance, her heart stopped. Her arms sagged slightly, regret sinking into her skin. 

“Move.” Widowmaker’s voice was in her ear again, there to pick her up when she faltered. 

It was enough to pull her out of her thoughts and make her blink forward, taking the Overwatch agents by surprise. She recognised a few others from her time at Swiss base, only hesitating for a moment before firing her pulse pistols, purposefully not aiming at anyone in particular. It forced them to split up, some of them having to ditch the payload where it was. When she saw Morrison train his weapon on her from the corner of her eye, Lena blinked away, landing right in front of him and taking him by surprise. 

Her forehead connected with his, sending him stumbling backwards. Lena didn't think she could bring herself to actually kill him unless she  _ had _ to, but that didn't mean she was afraid to hurt him. She had  _ plenty _ of unresolved anger from the Slipstream. She hadn't had much of a chance to  _ really _ master using the chronal accelerator in combat but she wasn't afraid to learn as she went, blinking to give herself extra momentum before kicking the side of Morrison’s face. He brought his fists up to protect himself at the last second and attempted to return the blow, missing as Lena blinked out of his reach. 

They continued to trade blows, Morrison eventually able to return a few of his own once he got used the recharge time between Lena’s blinks, a fist to the face breaking her nose. She stumbled a few steps back, forgetting to recall in time to undo the damage, simply holding the bridge of her nose. When Morrison moved to attack her again, she blinked rapidly to hide in an alley nearby, trying to gather herself. Doomfist and Reyes had taken over where Lena had left off, trying to secure the goods from the remaining Overwatch agents. 

A grunt of pain to her right caught Lena’s attention, getting her to stand up and wipe the blood from her nose on the front of her jacket. She stepped around the dumpster she had chosen to hide behind and walked further into the alleyway, finding Mercy collapsed on the ground, a wing shredded and her Valkyrie suit damaged. Lena stood over her before flicking her pulse pistols back into her hands, only half heartedly aiming them at her.

“So, Jack was right… they brought you back?” Mercy managed to force out between pants, breathless from whatever had injured her.

“Yeah. Talon did what Overwatch wouldn't, rescued me, made sure I was safe.” Lena murmured, her voice low as she tried to keep the anger out of her words. After all, it wasn’t  _ Mercy’s  _ fault.

“Winston did try-” Her words were cut off as she tried to sit up, clutching at her ribs in pain. Lena kept her pistols trained on her but her fingers were not on the triggers.

“He did. He did what he needed to in order to bring me back, what Morrison wouldn't do.” She sniffed as she felt blood dripping from her nose. 

Mercy gave her a soft smile, “I'm sorry about what happened, if it had been up to me we would have still been looking for you.” 

Lena could see blood trickling slowly from where Mercy held her side, obviously having been clipped by a bullet. She lowered her pistols slightly, feeling conflicted. Realistically Lena knew that she should be taking advantage of this opportunity, but Mercy had never been anything but nice to her in her check ups before the Slipstream launch.

“Why are you still with them, Lena? You know what damage they cause. If you stay with them willingly, you're just as bad as they are.” 

Her face twisted before she raised her pistols again, training them back on Mercy’s face with her index fingers on the triggers now.

“You act like you know what's happened to me. You don't know anything. I was lost for a year. A year! But Widow… Widowmaker she convinced Talon to save my life, they gave me a chance when Overwatch chose to leave me to rot because of a  _ budget. _ ” Lena sneered, anger building up inside her again, much like what she felt when she first saw Morrison.

“Do you even know what you're here to steal today, Lena?” Mercy dodged what she had said, trying to meet her eyes and placate her. 

“Does it really matter?” Lena murmured in reply.

“Talon is here to interrupt a shipment of medical supplies, that's what we're here to protect. People will go without necessary medical attention because of you.” 

“Chèrie, take care of her. We do not have time for this.” Widowmaker’s voice came from the earpiece, trying to remind her of what was going on. 

Lena tried to force herself to pull the trigger, trying to convince herself it was for the mission, for Widowmaker, but she felt tears spilling over her cheeks as she realised she couldn't force herself to do it. She emptied both clips into the nearby wall in frustration, flicking the pistols back into their holsters to free up her hands, trying to wipe the tears from her cheeks. Mercy reached out to her, tugging on the front of her jacket to pull her into a hug, surprising Lena with her gentility. 

It took a few seconds for Lena to push herself away, to create space between them. She tried to find words, to find something to say to her when she felt an arm wrap around her waist and swing her up into the air. It was Widowmaker, she had swung down using her grappling hook, rescuing her from the alleyway. Widowmaker dropped them down onto a nearby rooftop.

“Lena.” She said, her voice firm but her face pinched with worry. 

“Yeah?” Lena averted her eyes as she felt Widowmaker’s gloved hand take hold of her chin, her thumb swiping at the blood on her upper lip and the tears on her cheeks.

“You were not ready, I apologise.” She surprised Lena with her apology, she’d never heard something like that come out of Widowmaker’s mouth in more than a year they'd known each other.

“No, luv, you couldn't have known.” Lena forced her eyes up, feeling warm at the concern evident on Widowmaker’s face. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen her so expressive before.

“We shall talk about this later. We need to return to the ship, they secured the supplies.” Widowmaker said, snaking her arm back around Lena’s waist and holding her close, firing her grappling hook.

They arrived back at the dropship, finding Doomfist and Reyes already on board with the supplies secured to the racks in the middle of the aircraft. Sombra was close behind them, Lena wasn't even sure what her part in the mission had been. Widowmaker had only told her what she'd been expected to do. 

Lena took a seat at the back of the craft, strapping herself in and trying to create as much space between the others and her. Widowmaker came up to her, damp cloth in hand before crouching down in front of her, wiping her face clean without saying a word. She took the jump seat beside her. The way Widowmaker was acting brought a small smile to Lena’s face, even if she was feeling disappointed with herself. Widowmaker was both giving her space but also being affectionate in her own way. 

She fell into a fitful sleep on the return trip to base back in Europe, between the anxiety now having dissipated being replaced with overwhelming disappointment, her body was exhausted. It helped to have Widowmaker sitting next to her as well. Lena was woken up hours later by a gentle shake to her shoulder. Everyone else had already cleared out of the dropship, leaving Lena alone with Widowmaker. She pressed a brief kiss to Lena’s forehead before leaving as well, letting her take her own time in returning to her room. 

Lena sat in her seat for a few more minutes before finally unbuckling the straps and making her way to the medbay to get her nose looked at. The medic simply raised a brow, obviously knowing that Lena could have recalled to undo the damage done to her face but said nothing as they used plastic strips to secure her broken nose. It would take a few days to heal, the process sped up by the use of nano tech but it still left her with time to wear her injuries a little too openly for her liking. 

Initially Lena returned to her own room alone, wanting to spend the rest of the night sulking by herself. She thought better of it once she took time to soak in the shower, clearing her thoughts and worries at least for the moment. Lena grabbed the pillow off her bed after changing into a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, crossing the hall and knocking lightly on Widowmaker's door. 

The door popped open, Widowmaker standing behind it, her eyes examining Lena’s bruised face for a moment before pulling her inside. She took Lena’s pillow and placed it on the bed then pulled her in for a tight hug, one hand holding her head against her chest and carding through her hair and the other running up and down her back. The gentleness of her embrace brought out the tears once again, Lena falling asleep that night with her face buried against Widowmaker’s neck, the assassin soothing her as she cried.


	15. Insecurities

Widowmaker frowned as she stared down her scope. The night that they'd returned to base after Lena’s first mission, she had cried against Widowmaker’s shoulder and sputtered out incoherent apologies until her battered body gave into exhaustion, falling asleep with her face buried in the crook of Widowmaker’s neck. She'd hugged Lena's body against her and helped slide them both under the bedcovers, using her fingers to tug out the small knots in Lena’s wet hair while she waited to drift off as well.

Since then, Lena had been returning to Widowmaker’s room every night, pillow in hand, but she wasn't her usual cheerful self. She was far more withdrawn and quiet in a way that Widowmaker had only seen once before when she had found Lena curled up in a ball in her room months ago. Her nightmares had also returned, recurring nightly and causing her to writhe in her sleep until she woke up, sitting up in bed and refusing to lie back down, knees hugged against her chest. 

Widowmaker tried to push her worry for Lena out of her mind as she swung the scope around. They had been alternating each day as to who would be training with Lena to add variety into it, and today was the day she had chosen. The goal was for Lena to be able to sneak up behind her and stick one of her pulse bombs on her without getting caught. 

A flash of red in Widowmaker’s scope brought a smug smirk to her lips, and she fired her grappling hook, swinging from one rooftop to another as Lena blinked onto the roof. Widowmaker watched her spin on the spot, looking around for her in confusion and it made her chuckle. Lena had been improving rapidly for someone who had never had much training in ground combat, but subtlety was far from one of her strengths. 

Widowmaker was brought out of her thoughts by something warm and hard pressing to the small of her back. She turned her head, looking up over her shoulder to see Lena standing behind her with a grin, having already stuck her pulse bomb to the material of her suit. 

“You were sitting there all distracted, smug look on your face and everything. Thought this was supposed to be a challenge?” Lena teased, smirking.

Widowmaker’s eyebrow twitched with irritation, “I had to make it easy for you, chèrie, you still are not very good.” She schooled her face into a neutral mask, acting like she hadn't been so distracted celebrating her victory already that she did not even hear the distinct noise of Lena’s accelerator come from behind her.

“Wanna go again?” Lena asked, reaching out and removing the pulse bomb from Widowmaker’s back to return it to its home in her harness.

“Oui.” She replied, standing up straight and holstering her rifle onto her back as she aimed her grapple hook, finding another place to hide.

They went through the same drill for hours, trading blows and spots.

Widowmaker didn't let Lena get the best of her a second time.

 

That evening followed the same pattern of the previous few days. Lena encouraged Widowmaker to come with her for dinner in the cafeteria instead of hiding in her room, and they sat and chatted as they ate. Sometimes they were joined by other agents, sometimes they were alone before they went back to Widowmaker’s room. Widowmaker laid in bed, watching as Lena pressed at the skin around her nose, testing the bruising with her fingertips. It was mostly healed already, the bruising having faded to yellow instead of the original deep purple and blues. She figured that Lena would only have to keep the plastic strips on her nose for another day, two at most. 

When Lena turned to face her, she moved over, creating a space on the mattress for her. Lena flicked off the light switch before sliding into bed beside her, taking the position she'd been going to sleep in most nights so far, curled up against Widowmaker's side with her face resting on her chest and Widowmaker’s fingers in her hair. 

It soothed the both of them more than either of them would probably care to admit.

Widowmaker was woken up yet again that night by Lena’s writhing, trying to kick the bedcovers off them both, fingernails digging into her bicep. She was grateful for her dulled sense of pain after seeing Lena’s white knuckle grip. It was a struggle to try keep Lena still, and she wrapped her arms tightly around her and pulled her in, petting at her hair in order to try and calm her. Eventually Lena woke up, sitting straight in bed and wiping at the sheen of sweat on her face. 

“Lena.” Widowmaker started, waiting for the girl to turn and look at her, to acknowledge she'd heard her speak. 

Lena kept herself faced away from her, saying nothing.

“Chèrie. This is getting worrying. Please tell me what is wrong?” She tried to reach out and rest her hand on Lena’s shoulder but she flinched away from Widowmaker's touch. 

Lena let out a slow, shaky breath before shuffling off the end of the bed and standing up, heading straight for the door. She walked out, leaving Widowmaker in the dark, alone and confused. It took a moment for Widowmaker to get up and follow, grabbing Lena's RAF jacket off the back of the chair on her way out. 

Widowmaker wasn't surprised that Lena had ended up leading her up to the roof, finding her sitting on the edge like she had the last time they were here. She watched for a few moments then walked up to her, draping her jacket over her shoulders and taking a seat beside her. They said nothing to each other at first, Widowmaker trying to give Lena a chance to say something without her pushing for information. 

Eventually she reached out and brushed Lena’s hair off her face, frowning as she initially stiffened at the contact of Widowmaker’s cold skin to her forehead. She began to ease into it after a while, letting her eyes fall shut as she leaned into Widowmaker's touch and then onto her shoulder. 

“They were about the Slipstream at first.” Lena started, her voice just barely above a whisper, “Being lost in time and seeing all these different things… now they're more than that, it's... everything.” 

“Everything?” Widowmaker repeated, asking her to elaborate as she moved her arm to sling around Lena’s shoulder and pull her closer.

“Like… the Slipstream, my parents, and now with the mission the other day. Couldn't bring myself to do what I needed to do, I let you and everyone else down but… I just  _ couldn't.”  _

“You did not disappoint anyone, chèrie.” She murmured as she pressed a kiss to the side of Lena’s head.

“You say that, but you had to  _ lie  _ for me in the debrief, say I couldn't kill Angie because of other Overwatch agents present. If I could have just done what I was told -”

“It is not reasonable to expect that you could kill someone that you knew, moreover someone who was no threat to you on your first mission. That is why I lied. They would have given you…  _ consequences _ for failure, ones that I do not believe would be fair. You did not disappoint me.” 

There was a long silence between them, filled only with the sound of the short sniffles of Lena’s nose. Lena brought the sleeve of her jacket up to wipe her nose before speaking again.

“Y’know that day you found me in your room… all curled up and just a right sodding mess?” She paused, waiting for Widowmaker’s hum of acknowledgement, “the Slipstream… it took me back to the day my parents died, couldn't do anything but watch it happen again. Couldn't stop it, they couldn't even see me...” Lena trailed off, letting the silence fill in the gaps. 

Widowmaker took in a long breath, pulling Lena into her lap and hugging her tightly against her. She had no experience in comfort or reassurance, having someone  _ need  _ her like this was unexplored territory and completely outside her skill set, but she still found herself wanting to try. It was overwhelming.

“I have you, chèrie.” She murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. 

They sat together in silence, Lena in Widowmaker's lap for what seemed like hours as they watched the sky lighten with the dawn. Eventually Lena fell asleep against her, her body giving into the exhaustion. Widowmaker held her as she stood up, trying to move her as little as possible as she carried her back to her room. She nervously watched over Lena as she slept, as if keeping a close eye on her and not sleeping herself would fend off her nightmares. 

 

After they had talked on the roof, Lena’s mood seemed to improve in the following days. She'd been sleeping more, the dark rings under her eyes fading just a bit and she started to return to her more cheery self. Her fear over the idea that she might have disappointed Widowmaker or Talon seemed to have been largely assuaged since their talk, and she had become more engaged in her training both with Widowmaker and the other agents.

This particular training exercise had both Widowmaker and Sombra against Lena. She'd finally started to become comfortable enough with using her accelerator that one on one training sessions weren't challenging for her anymore. Lena had disappeared quickly after, heading to meet with Winston and some of the Talon doctors to have a check up on her anchor implant in her chest, leaving Sombra and Widowmaker alone in the training hall as they packed up. 

“You managed to surprise me, araña.” 

Widowmaker looked over to where Sombra stood, eyebrow raised in a question.

“A year ago, I wouldn't have thought you’d have the balls to lie to Talon for any reason.” Sombra had her arms crossed against her chest, her lips turned up into a smug smirk.

“Lie to Talon? I do not know what you mean.” 

“¡No mames! Must you do this every time? You’re not as subtle as you think and I know  _ everything. _ ” Sombra tsked at her in disbelief and amusement before continuing, “Anyways. You told Talon that there was no chance for Lena to take out Mercy and all that. I know that she was in the alleyway alone with her for several minutes, amiga.” Sombra raised one hand, curling and uncurling her fingers as she talked. 

“What exactly is your point?” Widowmaker gave an aggravated sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Sombra reached up and flicked the tip of Widowmaker’s nose with a finger. “My point, is that I'm happy for you. Speedy is a good influence. You have  _ feelings _ , and they’re enough for you to lie to protect her.”

Widowmaker glared at her in silence for a moment before turning around and stalking off, painfully aware of Sombra’s shit-eating grin directed at her as she left.

 


	16. On a Mission to Get...

“Widow?” Lena asked around a mouthful of spaghetti. It was her third bowl of the evening and Widowmaker had been watching on, still surprised by Lena’s ability to eat so much. 

“Oui, chèrie?” She watched as Lena cleaned off the rest of her bowl and put aside, wiping at the corners of her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket.

“The mission in Egypt, what were we doing there?” 

“What do you mean?” Widowmaker raised an eyebrow, they hadn't spoken at all about the mission since the night on the rooftop.

“Angie told me that Overwatch was there to guarantee the delivery of a bunch of medical supplies, doesn't make much sense. What would Talon even want with a whole lot of that stuff anyway?” 

Widowmaker made a soft noise at the back of her throat, clicking her fingernails against the surface of the table. “They do not make me privy to that type of information. They tell me what they want from me and I follow their instructions.” 

Lena’s face pinched with conflict at the thought, “And you're okay with that, luv?” 

“It is in my training, I do not have much choice.” 

Lena examined her face closely before nodding, rising from her seat as she announced her need for another bowl of spaghetti and returning to the line at the front of the cafeteria.

 

A week later, Lena stood in front of the mirror on Widowmaker’s wall, tugging at the strands of her hair with a frown on her face. She caught sight of Widowmaker in the reflection and grinned. Widowmaker laid behind her in bed, reading a new book with a look of distaste and horror -  _ Fifty Shades of Gray _ was  _ far _ from ideal literature… but watching Widow’s expressions was worth it. 

“Widow?” Lena started, turning her head to look back at where Widowmaker laid in bed, “Do you think I need a haircut, luv?” 

Widowmaker lifted her eyes from the page of her book, running them over Lena’s body before she spoke, “It looks fine.” She went back to reading the page she was on.

“ _ Ow. _ Wow, luv. You sure know how to make a girl feel good.” Lena raised a hand to her chest, feigning as if she were hurt. Widowmaker huffed a laugh.

“Oh? Do you think you would be better at that, chèrie? Do you have plenty of experience making women feel  _ good?”  _ She raised one eyebrow and sat up in bed, slipping her book mark into place before carelessly tossing the book onto the bedside table.

Lena gave her a confident smirk as she made her way towards the bed, “Something like that.” 

“Do tell. It sounds like you have plenty of interesting stories.” 

“Well…” Lena gave a laugh as she slipped into bed beside her, “There used to be this girl, a engineer from back before I flew the Slipstream and I brought her to see Winston to impress her. I told her I had a gorilla for a best friend and she thought I was having her on, so I  _ had _ to prove it. Then there were other girls I'd bring on base to impress them with the planes and my uniform and all that.” 

Widowmaker chuckled as Lena settled against her side, arm across her stomach, “A real ladies woman. Tell me, did any of them manage to maintain their ‘virtue’ around you?” 

Lena gave a faux pout, her cheeks flushing a soft pink, “What're you trying to say about me, luv? You think I'm the type to sleep with lots of women?”    
“Oui.” She smirked, and Lena chuckled. 

“Well, you might be a bit right.  _ Might _ .  _ Maybe.  _ There’s the time where I butt-dialed Winston while I was with this new girl.”    
“Oh? Do tell.” 

“Yeah, bought this gorgeous bird from the bar down the road from Swiss HQ back to my quarters and we were, y’know, going at it and I was still wearing my pants and my phone was in my pocket. All ‘a sudden, I hear from my back pocket ‘Lena? Lena? Seriously?’ before the poor guy hung up,” Lena giggled, watching Widowmaker roll her eyes, “Ooh, there was also the time I was with this other girl in the hangar for the Slipstream, brought her back there to prove that I really was gunna fly this brand new plane and we got walked in on, again by Winston.” 

“It sounds to me, chèrie, that you are either careless or enjoy getting caught. Perhaps Winston needs to find a new friend.”

“Oi!”

“Is this why he always asks you if you think about anything  _ other  _ than women?” Widowmaker teased, looking down at where Lena had rested her head on her chest.

“ _ Maybe _ .”  

“So, if your reputation is just as Winston claims, why have you not bedded every woman on base?” She mocked.

“Don’t be daft,” Lena started, burying her head into Widowmaker’s chest, the arm around her waist tightening, “Don’t need anybody else, already got you.” There were a few moments of silence before Lena lifted her head, her face twisting into something more predatory, “Why you asking, luv? You worried that I would go around tarnishing women’s ‘virtue’?” She raised her hand to Widowmaker’s cheek, rubbing her thumb along it. 

Widowmaker huffed another laugh, rolling her eyes, “Non. Do not get so full of yourself.” 

“Alright, whatever you say, luv.” Lena smirked, resting her head back down and dropping the subject. 

 

As weeks went by, Lena had managed to coax Widowmaker into sitting in the cafeteria for every meal. She did it partially because Widowmaker was already broody enough, she didn’t need to keep hiding in her room, but also partially because it was easier for Lena to keep getting up and going back for more rounds of food instead of having to take multiple helpings back to the room and hoping it was enough. Lena’s appetite had turned into its own monster - even on days where she didn’t use the accelerator much, she still ate twice of what she used to before the Slipstream. On days like this, when she had spent over four hours in the training hall running drills, she needed five servings to sate her hunger. Lena was pulled out of her thoughts as Sombra took the seat to her right and Gabriel sat beside Widowmaker across the table from her. 

“Hola, speedy, araña.” Sombra greeted them with a nod before picking up her fork and starting on her own dinner. 

Gabriel smiled Lena’s way and nudged Widowmaker. 

“Could you pass me the salt …” he trailed off, prompting Widowmaker to look at him quizzically before he continued, “Do I still call you Amelie?” 

Widowmaker stiffened, looking back at her food as she robotically passed him the container. “Non. Do not ever call me that name. Widowmaker is fine.” 

There were several moments of awkward silence between the four of them, Lena’s eyes darting between Gabriel and Widowmaker, hoping someone would say something first to ease the tension. Gabriel looked like he was ready to get up and leave the table when it was becoming too much, so Lena did her best to ease it on her own. 

“Hey, Gabe, did Jesse ever manage to beat your spoon record back at Overwatch?”

The tension eased a bit as Gabriel sat back and gave her a look. “No,” he drawled, “why?”

Lena ignored Sombra and Widowmaker’s curious looks as she leant forward with a grin. “Bet you that I can beat it.”

He raised an eyebrow. “A bold bet, Oxton. What are we betting?”

“Loser has to talk backwards for a week?”

Gabriel stared at her for a long moment before holding out his pinky finger with a matching grin. “Deal.”

Lena giggled and linked her pinky with his before getting up from her seat and heading for the front of the cafeteria while a mystified Widowmaker and Sombra watched on. She returned with ten spoons, laying them out with ceremony before she sat back in her seat and began resting the spoons on her face, a determined look in her eye as Gabriel leaned back in his seat and watched. She could see Widowmaker from the corner of her eye pretending to be disinterested but trying to catch brief looks, a small smile playing on her lips. Lena dropped a couple of spoons, but after a few tries, she ended up looking towards Gabriel triumphantly, nine spoons resting on her face. 

“Better start talking backwards, old man.” She said with a wink, trying to move her face as little as possible. 

“You have great taste in women, chica.” Sombra teased, looking directly at Widowmaker.

Widowmaker scoffed and rolled her eyes, diverting her attention elsewhere. Gabriel stood up without a word and began heading for the door. 

“Well, I have people to do and things to see, so adiós.” Sombra got up from her seat with a wave, revealing the fact that she was wearing shoes with wheels on them. 

“Get the door, papi!” She called out to Gabriel who stood, holding the door open as he watched her glide across the cafeteria and out the door. Gabriel turned to look at where Widowmaker and Lena sat, all three of them sharing an exasperated, but amused look.

  
  


Lena rubbed at the back of her neck with the palms of both her hands, letting out a low groan as she walked through the door to Widowmaker’s room. She’d spent all afternoon with Doomfist, their training coming to an abrupt end when she fell one whole storey to the ground below, landing shoulders and neck first. She wasn’t seriously injured, but she certainly was incredibly sore.  

She unbuckled the straps of her accelerator and docked it in the charging station by the door, they’d had one installed in Widowmaker’s room too after Lena had started basically living in it. Lena shucked off her jacket and hung it on the hook on the door of the wardrobe, smiling at the sight of Widowmaker at her desk, reading yet another book that Lena had recommended for her, ‘I, Robot’. 

“Hiya, luv. Enjoying the book?” She asked, stepping up behind the chair and wrapping her arms around Widowmaker from behind, pressing a kiss to the top of her shoulder.

“Oui.” She murmured, still intensely drawn into the novel.

Lena read the book for a moment over her shoulder, simply enjoying being around Widowmaker, before she noticed a few magazines spread out on the top of the desk. A bright flush spread across Lena’s face, her eyes darting between the magazines and Widowmaker who seemed to be far too focused on her book to realise Lena had seen them.

“Um… Luv?” She waited until Widowmaker hummed an acknowledgement, “Why have you got a bunch of porn mags just sitting on your desk?”   

“I… Research.” 

“ _ Research,  _ hmm?” Lena teased, smirking down at the purple blush on Widowmaker’s cheeks.. 

“I _ see _ . You don’t mind if I do some  _ research  _ of my own, do you?” She asked, picking up one of the magazines and heading for the bathroom, not waiting for an answer. 

Lena popped open the door and slid inside, locking it quickly behind her, knowing that Widowmaker’s eyes were glued to it as it closed. She tossed the magazine onto the counter and took a seat on the toilet, just waiting for a few moments in silence to leave Widowmaker wondering what was going on in here. Eventually she got up, stripped herself of her clothes and turned the water on, letting it heat up. 

She unlocked the door and peered back out at where Widowmaker was sitting, catching hungry golden eyes still stuck to the door, averting in shame when caught. Lena smirked at her, letting the silence sink in for a moment before speaking.

“Widow, luv?” 

“... Yes?” Widowmaker forced her eyes back up to meet Lena’s. 

“Can you help me out?” Lena reveled in the way Widowmaker seemed to squirm slightly in her seat at the implication in that question.  _ So it was like that, huh? _

“With what?” She tried to keep the eagerness out of her voice. 

“Oh, I just forgot to bring in a towel with me, can you grab one of the clean ones from the wardrobe?” Lena asked, grinning widely at the way Widowmaker’s shoulders seemed to sag with disappointment.

  
  


If Sombra had been asked how she thought her evening was going to go, she would’ve probably responded with research, acquisition of funds, or if she was feeling adventurous, espionage - but entertaining a drunk Widowmaker would not have been anywhere close to what she would have answered. She opened the door, finding Widowmaker leaning against the door frame with a lazy smirk on her face. 

“You alright there, araña?”

“You were right,” Widowmaker started, slurring, “I have  _ feelings. _ ” 

“Feelings?” Sombra asked, stepping aside as Widowmaker seemed to push into her room without invitation. 

“Mmm… Yes. Feelings for Lena.”

“How  _ much _ have you had to drink?” She watched with amusement as Widowmaker wobbled over to her bed and gingerly took a seat on the edge. 

“... Five glasses I think. Of Wine. I found some wine in the cafeteria.” Widowmaker pulled the tie out of her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders. Sombra eyed her closely, spinning the desk chair around and taking a seat herself. 

“So what made you get drunk, chica? I’m not  _ complaining _ , it’s good to see you finally loosen up a bit.” 

“I have  _ feelings _ … and  _ needs.  _ And my feeling right now is a  _ desperate need to fuck _ .” 

Sombra stifled a laugh at the nonchalant manner Widowmaker had stated that in before she had flopped over backwards on the bed with a pout. “Woah there… Lena isn’t giving you any already?” 

“I have been trying to hint… but non, she hasn’t been ‘giving me any’. I thought you were supposed to be always watching.” 

Sombra snorted, definitely enjoying this side of Widowmaker maybe a little too much, “Well, after you two finally got your shit together, I stopped watching. Don’t need to watch you two bone.” 

Widowmaker waved her off with the flick of her wrist, saying nothing. 

“So you’ve been trying to ‘hint’, have you? What’ve you been doing?” 

“Mmm, I tried to ask her about women from before the Slipstream and then I even left pornographic magazines on the desk for her to see.” Widowmaker frowned deeply when Sombra cackled loudly.

“You’re terrible at this. Alright, you need my help to sate your ‘ _ desperate need to fuck _ ’.” She mocked, putting on a terrible French accent. 

“ _ Va te faire foutre connard _ .” Widowmaker said halfheartedly, raising a middle finger in the direction of a hooting Sombra. “Well how  _ do  _ you plan to help me?”  

“There’s these wonderful things called sex shops and they let you buy things online for all your desperate fucking needs,” Sombra turned her chair around to face her desk, bringing up her displays as she began to search online for things to let Widowmaker look at, “Got some ideas of how you can finally give Lena the hint she needs. Now-”  

“I really really  _ really  _ like Lena’s ass. Have you seen how it looks in her pants? It is nice and tight. I want to touch it.”

Sombra paused and turned around to face Widowmaker with amusement written on her face, displays temporarily forgotten. “...Only touch?” 

“Non, I want to squeeze it too.”   
“Okay, so-” 

“And lick it, suck it. Maybe eat it as well.” 

“ _ Oh my god. Right, so _ do you want to actually look at what they have online? There’s plenty of stuff here for you to fulfil your ass needs.”

“Mmm... non.” 

Sombra arched her eyebrow, looking back at Widowmaker over her shoulder, “No?” 

“I do not like purchasing things online, I need to be sure they are of good quality, we shall go see what they have in person.” Widowmaker stood up and took hold of Sombra’s wrist, tugging her out the door without waiting for her response. 

Luckily, they were able to find a store that was still open late, and though they only had an hour until closing but that was plenty of time for Widowmaker to have a thorough inspection of all the toys. Sombra weaved through the different aisles until she realised that Widowmaker wasn’t with her, and was instead standing still near a display by the front of the store. 

“You alright there, amiga?” She called out over the shelves, heading her way over to where Widowmaker was standing. Sombra choked on a laugh at the sight of what Widowmaker was studying in her hands.

“Oui.” Her eyes were intently focused on the incredibly large strap-on in her hands, turning it over to look at it from all angles.

“You don’t think that might be a little ambitious? Fucking someone of Lena’s size with that?” 

Widowmaker huffed a laugh, lifting her eyes to look at Sombra and smirk, “Non. Lena shall rail me with this.”  

“Oh.” Sombra said, eyes widening before she broke into a laugh, “Good to know your preferences then, chica. Come on, I have a few other things I need you to look at, I have a plan for you.” 


	17. Laid!

Lena stood at the weapons rack in the training hall, slowly placing her pulse pistols and arm vambraces back in the section reserved for her. It had been a long training session where Doomfist had _ really  _ pushed her to her limits and she was fairly exhausted, her uniform sticking to her body with sweat. While Lena had already been on a few successful missions for Talon already and had showcased her ability to get the job done, even if it were with less Overwatch agent deaths than they wanted, they wanted to  _ really  _ test her and get every bit of potential value out of her that they could. 

She had been lost in deep thought when she heard someone clearing their throat behind her. Lena pivoted slightly, looking back at whoever was trying to get her attention. Her eyes met Sombra’s regular smug expression, and Lena stifled a groan. She was never up to any good when she looked like that. 

“What do you need, luv?” Lena asked, turning back to finish putting away her gear. 

“Your spider asked me to let you know she wants to see you in her room but before you do,” Sombra paused, holding out a small bag to Lena,”she asked me to bring you this.” 

“What’s that?” Lena spun around to face her, now stripped down to just her uniform. 

“She wanted to make sure you don’t stink, so take a shower and use this to get changed.” Sombra was smirking as she passed the bag over to Lena, and she drew her eyebrows together in confusion and wonder exactly what the hacker knew that she didn’t. 

“Thanks, I’ll go see her when I’m done here.” Lena looked over her shoulder at Sombra one last time, watching the hacker as she hummed to herself and finally made her way to leaving Lena alone in the training hall, Doomfist having left a long while ago. She headed towards the showers and wondered about what Widowmaker could  _ possibly _ want from her that would involve having Sombra ask her to see her instead. 

  
  


When Widowmaker heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, towards her room, she propped herself up on her elbows and hoped that it was Lena. Widowmaker tried her best not to feel stupid over letting herself be convinced by Sombra into doing...  _ this  _ for Lena’s birthday. She had asked Sombra to give Lena the message to come back to her room to see her as soon as her training was done and Lena should be back  _ any _ minute now. Not that that thought actually calmed the nervousness nipping at her mind, wondering what Lena would think of all of this, of her plan - if she would be even okay with it. The footsteps stopped directly outside the door, and her breathing quickened. She could hear Lena humming the French nursery rhyme that she’d sung to her to help with her nightmares and it brought a small smile to her face as the door handle twisted. 

The red glow of Lena's chronal accelerator confirmed her presence before Widowmaker could even see her, the small smile on her face morphing into a smug smirk as Lena's eyes caught sight of her lounging on the bed, wearing only the lingerie she had bought. Lena hesitated at the doorway for a moment, hand still holding the door handle as she swallowed at the sight. Widowmaker felt self conscious for just a moment, worry settling in as Lena had no immediate reaction other than to continue staring at her. That feeling was pushed aside as the expression on Lena's face turned into something approaching reverence. 

“I uh…”

Widowmaker’s smirk melted into an exasperated but amused smile and she propped herself up on her shoulders. “Lena.”

Lena stopped her stammering and met Widowmaker’s gaze. “Happy Birthday.”

Her eyes widened as her brain caught up and a wide grin crossed her face. Her hands quickly began unbuckling the straps of the accelerator, putting the hardware to the side and tugging her shirt up over her head.    
"This for my birthday, luv?" Lena began, crossing the room to her, and Widowmaker shuddered slightly at the change in her tone, the smugness palpable. She tossed her shirt carelessly to the side before moving to climb onto the bed and straddle Widowmaker.    
Widowmaker watched as Lena ran her tongue along her lips, her hands reverently sliding up her sides, beginning at her hips and ending with palming her breasts through the fabric of her black lacey bra. Lena let out an appreciative groan at the feeling of the lace beneath her fingers, she had always loved lingerie, it was like Widowmaker had known and had gone out of her way to buy this _ just _ for her. 

The lingerie set was simple matching set of bra and panties with black thigh high socks that kindled a flame in Lena’s stomach. No matter what happened that evening, those thigh highs were staying on. 

“Do you like it, chérie?” There was a touch of nervousness in Widowmaker’s tone that brought Lena out of her thoughts and made her want to reassure her. Lena reached forward and cupped her cheek, running her thumb across it softly. 

“You have  _ no idea _ .” Lena leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to Widowmaker’s lips before mouthing across her jaw and down her neck. Widowmaker let out a quiet sigh at the hot mouth moving along her skin, shuddering when Lena dragged her tongue back up. The hand on Widowmaker’s breasts slid around her back, undoing the clasp of her bra swiftly. 

“Much as I love these, they have to go.” She murmured against Widowmaker’s mouth, giving her another lot of brief kisses. Lena took her bra off, tossing it to the floor without looking, not caring where it went. The kisses at Widowmaker’s neck migrated down her her sternum and settled on her breasts, Lena’s lips wrapping around her nipple. Widowmaker let out a small groan and it was music to Lena’s ears, she wanted to hear more. One of her hands moved down Widowmaker’s body, raking her fingernails down the outside of her exposed thigh, the roughness of it pulling out a needy whimper from the woman beneath her.

Lena pulled back, smirking down at her as a blush rose to Widowmaker’s cheeks. She raked her nails down her thigh again, hearing the same noise again though more desperate under Lena’s intense gaze. It sent  a shudder down Lena’s spine - she’d never expected to hear something like that from  _ Widowmaker _ . It was something she was grateful for, only she was lucky enough to see her like this. Lena leaned in, her mouth against Widowmaker’s ear.

“What was that, luv? Do you like me being rough?” She murmured, her voice raspy and low. All Widowmaker could do was nod, feeling her face warm as Lena chuckled against her ear.

“I bought toys.” Widowmaker managed to force out, her words a tight whisper, gesturing with her hand to the box sitting on the bedside table. She felt a little disappointed as Lena sat back and stepped off the bed to grab the box, opening it. Lena let out a short laugh as she saw the contents, pulling out the first thing that caught her eye, a  _ very  _ large strap on with a matching harness. 

“I can certainly use this.” Lena purred. She toed off her already loose laced combat boots, kicking them to the side and unbuckled her belt, stripping herself down to just her underwear. Lena couldn’t help but notice the intense golden eyes hungrily  watching her as she secured the harness around her hips.

She climbed back onto the bed, settling between Widowmaker’s legs, the strap on brushing against her crotch and drawing out another needy noise. Lena leaned in, kissing along the top of her panties, fingers hooking themselves into the elastic waistband. Her panties were quickly removed, Lena’s eyes lingering between her legs, running her tongue over her lips. Widowmaker squirmed slightly under her heated, almost predatory gaze. She took her time, kissing up the skin of her inner thighs, pinching it between her teeth and purposefully working Widowmaker up as much as possible.  

Suddenly Lena’s mouth was working between her thighs, tongue circling her clit. The change of pace was a welcomed shock to her system, she hadn’t realised exactly how much she wanted Lena there until now. Lena moaned against her, the vibrations causing Widowmaker’s hips to jolt. She was  _ sensitive. _

A finger began teasing at her entrance, purposefully holding back and not pressing into her no matter how much Widowmaker wanted it or how ready she was for it.

“ _ Please. _ ” Widowmaker whimpered. She hadn’t meant for it to escape her lips but she was well beyond caring now. She felt the finger press inside her, already curling against her front wall. Lena slipped in a second, her lips sealing around her clit, moaning against her as she felt Widowmaker’s slick beginning to run down her chin. She kept working Widowmaker up until her breathing got loud and ragged. Lena pulled away, withdrawing her fingers and sucking on them before leaning in to give her a filthy kiss. 

“You’re so wet, luv.” Lena murmured against her lips. She leaned over to grab at the box of toys again, digging around blindly for the bottle of lube that Widowmaker had bought. “Don’t think you need it but..” Lena trailed off as she uncapped the bottle and poured some into her hand, working it over the strap on. Widowmaker’s eyes were glued to the toy, she bit her lip as she watched. Cold, wet fingers began to tease at her entrance again, spreading the lube. Lena smirked down at her as she moved Widowmaker’s long legs over her shoulders, tilting her hips upwards.

Lena gripped at the toy, swiping the head of it up and down three times before pressing the head into Widowmaker. She entered slowly, dragging out a loud groan from Widowmaker. It made Lena feel a bit lightheaded, hearing her be  _ so loud _ . Her free hand reached up and twisted in the sheets above Widowmaker’s shoulder, finally bottoming out inside her. Lena paused, letting her adjust around the toy, knowing exactly how sensitive she was. 

Widowmaker reached out for Lena’s hip, trying to encourage her to move, to stop teasing her already. Lena smirked, knowing exactly what she was looking for and  leaned further forward as she drew back, thrusting in hard and pressing Widowmaker’s legs closer to her chest.  

Widowmaker’s hands dug their way into Lena’s hair, twisting the strands around her fingers for something to grip on and pulling her forward for desperate, hungry kisses. Lena let herself be held there for a moment before pulling away, kissing down Widowmaker’s neck until she got to where her neck met her shoulder. She sunk her teeth into the flesh, feeling Widowmaker writhe and whimper beneath her, as she maintained the slow but hard rhythm of her thrusts. She hadn’t expected Widowmaker to be so submissive but it was a pleasant surprise anyway, it certainly gave Lena  _ plenty _ of ideas. 

Lena placed light kisses against the bruised flesh of Widowmaker’s shoulder, attempting to soothe it before picking up the pace of her thrusts, the wet sound of slapping skin filling the room. She could hear Widowmaker’s breathing quicken, listening closely to the gasps and moans that grew in volume as she obviously got closer to the edge. Lena brushed her lips up against the shell of Widowmaker’s ear. 

“How about you be a good girl for me, luv, and hold on a bit longer. I can tell you’re close.” Lena smirked at the needy keening noise Widowmaker made at that, making a mental note about it for the future. She watched as Widowmaker squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head back against the pillow, obviously straining herself to keeping from tumbling over the edge. Lena decided to take pity on her, slowly down her thrusts to a near standstill, earning a desperate whine from Widowmaker. 

“ _ Mon dieu _ .” Widowmaker tugged on the tufts of hair between her fingers, “ _ Please.” _

Lena chuckled, brushing the pad of her thumb against Widowmaker’s clit, revelling in the jolt of her hips at the contact, the loud ragged moan that she gave out. 

“You’ll cum when I allow it, luv.” Lena stopped thrusting completely, running her fingers over the hair on Widowmaker’s mound, purposefully moving close to where Widowmaker needed to be touched. “You want to earn it?” Lena punctuated the question by brushing her clit with her thumb again. 

“O-Oui.” Widowmaker said breathlessly. 

“You’re a real dirty girl, aren’t you?” Lena chewed at her lower lip as a desperate sound caught in Widowmaker’s throat, she watched as Widowmaker nodded, her eyes tightly clenched shut, “You want to cum? Tell me about how much of a dirty girl you are. Tell me what you want me to do to you. Tell me,” she leant in, brushing teasing lips along the shell of her ear before capturing the lobe between her teeth and gently pulling away, delighting in the whimper that elicited, “your dirtiest fantasies.” 

Widowmaker let out a long, shaky sigh and slowly opened her eyes to look up at Tracer, a shudder running down her spine at the smug smirk on her face, the heat and want in those brown eyes. 

“The other day, in the armoury…” Widowmaker trailed off as Lena hummed an encouragement, wanting her to continue, she wet her lips before speaking, “The thought of you bending me over the workbench…” Widowmaker let out a gasp at the quick, short thrust that Lena gave in response to her admission. Another chuckle rolled through Lena as her own mind went back to the day back in the armoury where she had been making adjustments to her pulse pistols while Widowmaker watched on, she had thought there was something a little more to the looks she gave her but now she understood. 

“And? If you want to cum, you’ll have to tell me more.” Lena leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, taking her bottom lip between her teeth with a tug. She smirked down at Widowmaker as she waited. 

“I… Um… I pictured you bending me over the desk, unzipping my suit and using your fingers to fuck me... “ Widowmaker whined when Lena let out another low chuckle, punctuating it with another sharp thrust of her hips. 

“You like the idea of me fucking you in public, huh? You like the idea of getting caught?” Lena murmured against her neck, grazing her teeth along the skin. She could hear and feel Widowmaker whimpering underneath her. Lena waited until Widowmaker gave a quick nodding, her cheeks now completely flushed with her embarrassment. 

“Such a dirty girl,” She said, returning to the brutal pounding pace from earlier without any warning, grinning to herself as the noises Widowmaker made would easily be heard by all their neighbours. 

She brought her thumb to rub tight circles on her clit, feeling Widowmaker’s legs on her shoulders tighten against the side of her neck in response. The hands still in Lena’s hair tightened, pulling on the strands twisted between those slender fingers as Widowmaker threw her head back against the pillow. Between the noises she was making and the ragged breathing, Lena knew that Widowmaker was incredibly close, teetering on the edge. 

“Be a good girl and cum for me.” Lena growled, hips gripping the top of Widowmaker’s thighs as she pushed them even closer to her chest. 

She watched as Widowmaker’s eyes rolled back into her head as she shouted Lena’s name. Widowmaker’s hands pulled roughly on Lena’s hair as she came, her whole body taut. Just as her orgasm was finishing, Lena reached up with one hand and tugged on her ponytail, the roughness of the action being enough to send her into a second orgasm straight away. Lena kept rubbing her clit gently to carry her through both her orgasms until Widowmaker finally went limp against the bed. 

Lena eased her legs off her shoulders and gently pet at her hip as she withdrew the toy, drawing out some sensitive mewls from Widowmaker. She unbuckled the straps from around her hips and placed the toy back on the bedside table beside the box before crawling up the bed, wrapping her arms around her. Widowmaker curled up against Lena’s front, the experience of whatever…  _ that  _ was obviously making her more affectionate. Lena held her close and pressed gentle kisses to her shoulders and neck as she caught her breath.  

After a while of just the sound of breathing between them Widowmaker spoke up, “The other toys…” She murmured against Lena’s chest.

“What’s that, luv?’ Lena asked, not having really heard what she’d said. 

“The other toys, there’s still more to use if you want… more.” Widowmaker said shyly, lifting her head up to look Lena in the eyes. 

“Oh. I  _ see _ .” She smirked down at Widowmaker before reaching across her body to the bedside table behind her, grabbing the box and pulling it onto the bed. Lena let out a low chuckle when she got a good look at the contents, “You think you’re ready to go again, luv?” 

“ _ Please _ ” 

“Lie on your back then.” Lena said, taking the box and shuffling back on the bed, waiting for Widowmaker to lie down so she could settle between her legs on her knees. She pulled the nipple clamps with a silver chain between them, holding them up for Widowmaker to see them. A sinking feeling of the best kind passed through Widowmaker as the smile on Lena’s face made it clear that Lena had  _ no intention _ of using them on herself like Widowmaker had first thought. 

Lena rested the chain on Widowmaker’s stomach as she reached up to tweak and tug on her nipples, preparing them for the clamps. She let out an appreciative groan as her nipples hardened, one of them being let go as Lena grabbed the clamps, bringing it up to the nipple still in her grasp and putting it on. Lena smirked at the way Widowmaker whimpered, her back arching just slightly off the mattress. 

“Alright, pet?” Lena asked, reaching up to stroke at Widowmaker’s cheek as she adjusted to the first clamp, “You ready for the next one?” 

At the quick nod Widowmaker gave, Lena grabbed the other clamp and took hold of her breast, clamping it onto the already hardened nipple. Widowmaker gave a shaky sigh at both the pain and pleasure as Lena began pressing gentle kisses at the top of her forehead.

“Such a good girl for me.” 

Lena grinned at the needy keen that Widowmaker gave at the praise. 

She gave a gentle tug to the chain between the clamps before shuffling back on the bed to where she at left the box, pulling out the last toy. It was just a regular vibrator, a purple one, but it brought a smirk to Lena’s face nonetheless. 

Lena tossed the box to the floor and settled back between Widowmaker’s legs on her knees, starting with rubbing gentle circles around her clit with her thumb before switching on the vibrator to its medium setting. Widowmaker’s legs jerked up at the feeling of the vibrator pressed against her clit, already letting out loud, unashamed moans. Lena tutted and pulled the vibrator away, a desperate whine finding its way out of Widowmaker’s throat.

“Be a good girl and keep your legs still,” She said, coaxing Widowmaker’s legs into straightening out on the bed, “Otherwise I’ll have to  _ restrain _ you.”   

Widowmaker let her straighten her legs but still let out a needy noise at the idea of being tied down. A low chuckle rolled through Lena as she brought the vibrator back to her cunt, only just preventing it from touching her clit. 

“You like the idea of being tied down, do you, pet? Not today, maybe another day.” She said as she pressed the vibrator back against her clit, teasing it and earning loud whines and moans. 

Lena watched, feeling pleased with herself as Widowmaker’s thighs tensed with the struggle to keep her legs where they were. She moved the vibrator around Widowmaker’s clit, watching closely for the particular spots that made her writhe and whimper. 

“Tell me when you’re getting close.” 

It didn’t take long for Widowmaker to be gasping, her thighs and abs tightly tensed and her fingers white knuckled where they grabbed at the sheets, “C-Close.” She managed to gasp out between ragged pants. Lena gave a cruel smirk as she pulled the vibrator away and switched it off. 

“Just a moment, pet. On your knees for me.” Lena said as she got off the bed and walked around it, picking back up the once abandoned strap-on. While she adjusted the straps around herself, she watched as Widowmaker rolled to her front and got on her hands and knees.

She stepped back around the bed, standing at the end of it and rested her hands on Widowmaker’s hips, pulling them back towards her. Lena noticed the way her thighs trembled with the effort of keeping herself in that position and grabbed one of the pillows on the bed, folding it over and putting it underneath Widowmaker’s hips. She coaxed her lie on it, her hands rubbing at her ass and upper thighs. Lena used her thumbs to tease open slick folds, smirking at the sight of the wetness gathered between them.

“You’re so gorgeous, luv. So worked up.” Lena groaned out as she pressed the head of the toy back at Widowmaker’s entrance, circling it and teasing Widowmaker some more.  

Lena eventually ceased her cruelty and pushed the toy inside, slowly. She had to hold Widowmaker’s hips down onto the pillow to keep her from squirming and pushing her hips back for more. The teasing seemed to driving her crazy. She eventually decided to give into Widowmaker’s whining, pulling back and thrusting forward again roughly. She took a rough, brutal pace, taking Widowmaker to the edge of her third orgasm of the night embarrassingly quickly. She twisted her fingers in the sheets, moaning out Lena’s name and warnings that she was going to cum.

“Don’t worry pet. I’ve got you, you just cum.” Lena managed to say between her panting breaths. 

She could feel Widowmaker’s orgasm, her inner walls clenching hard around the toy and making it hard for her to keep thrusting. Lena slipped a hand underneath her hips to start teasing her clit and ease her through her release. She waited until Widowmaker completely relaxed boneless against the mattress to stop and remove the toy completely, tossing it aside to be cleaned later. Lena eased the folded pillow out from under Widowmaker’s hips and climbed up onto the bed with her, taking hold of her again. 

It wasn’t until they’d both finally caught their breath that Widowmaker spoke, “This was meant to be for  _ your  _ birthday and I have not returned the favour at all.” 

Lena huffed a laugh before bringing Widowmaker in for a slow, gentle kiss, “S’alright. I prefer watching you completely lose it anyway. You don’t have to return the favour just yet, luv.” 

“Mmm… But if I wanted to?” Widowmaker smirked as the expression on Lena’s face returned to something more hungry, predatory. 

“Oh? Then I’d say, get on your knees, _pet_.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed them finally getting to fuck and everything. I know some people have been waiting for some top Tracer and here you go :)))
> 
> Just wanted to post here to say that unfortunately I've hit a really hard financial spot at the moment and I'm looking for all the help I can get really, you can find out more about my situation and how to help out herehttps://twoheartedalien2-0.tumblr.com/post/167469043794/financial-hardship
> 
> No obligation to help but a reblog, kudos and sharing my fics would go along way if you can't spare any money at the moment! Thanks for reading :D


	18. When Things Change

Lena gingerly made her way towards the dropship in the hanger, rubbing at the tense muscles in her shoulder. It really hadn’t been a great idea to fuck  _ so many  _ times the night before a large mission, especially one where they had to get up early. Widowmaker didn’t seem to be showing any signs of the same soreness she was feeling, but she was better at hiding things than Lena was anyways. She watched Gabriel making his way across the hangar from the side doors, cradling two cups of what she presumed was black coffee, he’d always insisted on drinking  _ only _ the strong stuff. 

Sombra was already inside the plane, sitting on one of the jumpseats by the front and checking some of her displays. Once she caught sight of Lena and Widowmaker approaching the dropship, a smug shiteating grin appeared on her face and Lena could see Widowmaker’s shoulders stiffen slightly out of the corner of her eye. They both walked up the ramp into the ship, Gabriel close behind, trying to avoid eye contact with Sombra in case she suddenly felt the need to speak. 

“Oi, pendejos!” Sombra called out as they passed. Lena looked over her shoulder and Widowmaker sat down on one of the nearby jumpseats. Sombra waited until she had the attention of both of them, “Sounded like you guys got up to  _ a lot  _ of fun last night.” 

Widowmaker rolled her eyes, trying to act as if her face wasn’t warming, “Mind your own business.” 

“But, chica, how am I meant to ‘mind my own business’ when you two made so much noise the  _ entire floor  _ heard the both of you fucking?” Sombra grinned as she looked between the two of them, watching their reactions. Widowmaker looked away, cheeks flushing with embarrassment but Lena seemed almost completely unaffected by her teasing, “You got some magic fingers there, Speedy? You must have with the noises she made.” She jerked her head towards Widowmaker who seemed to be trying to sink her way into the seat.

“It was more than just my fingers inside her last night, luv.” Lena said, issuing Sombra with a lecherous grin before taking a seat beside Widowmaker. 

“ _ Alright then,  _ Magic Fingers. Guess we have a new nickname for you.” 

Widowmaker leaned into Lena, her change in posture nearly imperceptible unless she were being watched closely, Sombra smiled to herself before turning back around to keep to herself as they waited for take off. 

 

The flight to Shanghai was long and turbulent, sending a pang of longing through Lena at being disallowed from flying. She would have been able to do a better job than whoever they’d hired. She hadn’t been able to sleep on the way over like she normally would, the sudden jolts waking her every time, but they didn’t seem to affect anyone else anywhere near as much. 

It was a great relief when the plane finally touched down on the roof of one of the many skyscrapers in the area. The mission brief had made it clear that they’d be here specifically to put a stop to an Overwatch operation and to give Widowmaker the opportunity needed to take a shot at some VIP who’s name had slipped Lena’s mind. She was still somewhat torn on the inside about Widowmaker’s role in these missions but she was beginning to learn to look the other way, knowing that Widowmaker had as much choice as she did when it came to missions and targets.

Lena quickly unbuckled herself and made her way for the door, already ready and eager to go, to get a chance to stretch her legs at the very least. She heard metal boots clinking against the floor as Widowmaker came to stand behind her. 

“Would you like a lift down to the ground, chérie?” 

Lena looked up at her over her shoulder, grinning, “You gunna swing us around on that grappling hook of yours? Sounds fun.” The door to the dropship slowly lowered and Lena felt an arm snake its way around her waist. 

Widowmaker aimed her grappling hook to a nearby building and swung them off the building, probably taking more time than necessary to find their way towards the ground. Lena clung to her, arms around her neck, short fingernails digging into her shoulders. Her delighted squealing brought a smile to Widowmaker’s face before she disengaged the hook, landing on the ground with Lena still clinging to her, feet not touching the floor. Widowmaker took advantage of getting a quick squeeze of Lena’s ass before they had to separate. 

“I have to go to my position, chérie. Do not get yourself killed.” She said, pressing a kiss to Lena’s forehead. 

“Is that your way of saying you like having me around?” Lena beamed up at her, placing her fists on her hips.

“Do not get full of yourself.” Widowmaker murmured, a small smile still tugging at the corner of her lips. When she stepped away to fire her grapple hook again, to leave, a small hand gripped the collar of her sniping suit.

“Nuh-uh. None of that, luv. You don’t get to leave without giving us a proper kiss.” Lena pulled her in, arms slinging around Widowmaker’s neck, giving her a kiss on the lips. 

Only when Lena let her go did Widowmaker finally get to step away and engage her grappling hook, moving to her designated sniping position, to wait for clear line of sight of the target. Lena brought her hand up to her ear, activating her comms device. 

“Hope you guys know that Morrison is mine. If you see him, let me know and stay away. I want to give him another good ass kicking.” She said, earning a chuckle from Gabriel.

“Looks like both Morrison  _ and  _ Amari are here this time. Figure she’s meant to be here to see if she can take you out, araña.”

“Oui. Compris.” Widowmaker droned, almost sounding bored. 

Lena grinned as she flicked her pulse pistols out of their holsters and began blinking towards the supposed locations of the Overwatch agents. It wasn’t long before she found Morrison, his long blue trench coat giving him away easily. He was keeping watch on a corner just where Sombra had suspected he would. 

“Remember me, you wanker?!” She shouted, announcing her arrival as she blinked behind him, hitting him over the head with the underside of the pistol in her right hand.

Morrison gave a pained grunt before hitting the ground, instantly rolling away from Lena and standing back up. Lena zigzagged as she blinked, dodging the shots he fired at her as she got closer to him. He was ready for her this time, smashing the underside of her chin with the top of his weapon as she got close and sending her onto her back. She groaned as stars danced across her vision, shaking her head as she opened her eyes. Morrison was straddling her waist before Lena had the chance to even stand up, her comms device had been thrown from her ear, her pistols out of reach. She had gotten ahead of herself, not taking Morrison’s decades of experience into account before flying in head first.

“Don’t make me kill you, Oxton. I’m not Angela, I will do it if I have to.” He growled, the front of his rifle resting against the centre of her accelerator, aiming at her anchor implant. It didn’t take a genius to know what it would do.

Morrison studied her face with narrowed eyes as she laid there, saying nothing, “Come quietly and let us examine your… whatever that is and we won’t have to kill you.”

Lena threw her head back and laughed. “And what exactly makes you think that sounds worthwhile? I’m not a your experimental monkey anymore,  _ commander. _ ” 

Both of their attentions were pulled away by the sound of Widowmaker’s voice coming over Lena’s earpiece.

“Confirming that the target has been eliminated…” 

Lena grinned victoriously up at Morrison, she’d done her job and distracted him long enough that he hadn’t been able to stop Widowmaker taking the shot. She didn’t exactly feel glee at Widowmaker’s success, more at Morrison’s failure. 

“Also confirming that Overwatch agent Ana Amari has been terminated via a shot through her scope.” 

Morrison gripped both of Lena’s wrists tightly, causing her to cry out in pain, and pinned them to the ground. She could see the frustration of earlier had turned into pure fury at the knowledge that Talon had killed Ana and Lena was the closest target. Even Lena’s stomach turned a little at the idea that she had been killed during all of this, she hadn’t  _ known  _ the Captain but she had known of her and knew her daughter, Fareeha. She struggled against his grip, trying to get some leverage but finding no luck. 

“ **_I’ll fucking kill you_ ** , you’re just as bad as they are, I’ll fuckin-” Morrison was cut off by a shot to the back, slumping to Lena’s side as blood sprayed up onto her face. 

She reached a hand up, wiping the blood from her goggles as she looked around for her savior.

Gabriel stood over her, offering her a hand up. It took her a moment for it all to register and for her to accept his help, being pulled up from the ground before looking at the ground in disgust. Morrison was still alive, just unconscious. It didn’t seem like Gabriel had any desire to finish him, as he gave Lena a nod and jerked his head towards the extraction point. Lena stared at Morrison for a long hard moment. She bent down, and quickly gathered up her pulse pistols and earpiece, slipping it back in. 

They made their way to leave when Mercy appeared, darting straight for where Morrison laid on the ground. She looked up at them, narrowing her eyes as if to challenge them to stop her from helping before getting on with tending to his wounds. They walked back to the dropship in silence, Lena clenching her hands into fists to control the shaking that came with the adrenaline wearing off. If Gabriel noticed it, he didn’t say anything.. Even with all the training they had done, it was another thing entirely to come that close to death in close quarter combat and to see someone be shot in front of her. 

Lena was grateful that Widowmaker let her sit alone on the return flight back to base.  

 

Morrison grunted as he was lowered onto the gurney in the medbay. Even lying on his front didn’t ease the pain from all the shotgun pellets in his back.

_ Goddamn, Reyes. Guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that you decided to shoot me in the back - again. _

Angela slipped on new gloves with a quick snap and used scissors to cut away the last of his clothing, trying to get access to the wounds. She hadn’t been able to do more than basic first aid in Shanghai or on the flight back. 

“You know this means we have to go through with it now.” Morrison grunted between pants, each touch of Angela’s fingers on his back forcing a pained exhale. 

“I know.” 

“We can’t be soft because you care for Oxton and Winston. We’ll have to use the tracker you placed on her the last time.” 

“ _I_ _know._ ” She repeated, applying maybe a little too much pressure to his wounds in retaliation, “Now lie still and be quiet.”  

There was only a few moments of silence between them before Morrison couldn’t resist, “I’m glad you finally see my side, Angela. I don’t know-” He was cut off, giving a pained grunt as Angela pinched at his skin.

“ _ I said,  _ be quiet.” 

As Jack Morrison faded into sedated unconsciousness, Angela let out a weary sigh and sat down on the floor, tossing her bloody gloves into the biohazard bin. She tilted her head back and stared up at the lights as she finally let her tears flow. 

_ Ana. Kind, helpful, motherly Ana. And Fareeha… _

There really was no way around it now. Talon would have to be eliminated - even if that meant the deaths of those she once called her friends.

And so, Angela Ziegler mourned.


	19. When Things Go To Shit

An ear piercingly loud alarm woke Lena from her sleep, making her sit upright in with a jolt in her bed as she frantically rubbed at her eyes. She’d only been told of what the alarm would mean, never having actually experienced or run drills for it. Beside her, Widowmaker climbed out of bed in quick, automatic precise movements,reaching down for her sniping suit and protective case for her rifle, acting as if she had done this countless times before. Lena regret her choice to leave her own gear in the training halls, on the other side of the base, and wish that she had listened to Widowmaker when she had suggested leaving them in their room. 

By the time Lena had managed to get herself out of bed and into her uniform, Widowmaker was already geared up and heading out the door, pressing at the side of her visor to engage the visor. She fumbled with the buckles of her accelerator, her hands shaking with nervousness. As soon as her combat boots were on, Lena blinked out the door and down the hallway, trying to get to the training hall as quickly as possible. It was a risk with intruders on the base, especially with it not being certain whether they had breached the building or not. She had to weave her way through regular Talon soldiers to get to where she was going as they were all heading in the opposite direction, towards the hangars. Maybe she’d be lucky and be able to grab her gear without interruption. 

It was when Lena reached the main hall leading to the training areas and firing range that she realised the intruders not only had gotten inside the building, but had also breached the two opposite sides of it. Winston, in his full plated body armour and wielding his tesla gun, crashed through the wall between the firing range and the hallway on the right, sending plaster and wood flying everywhere. A woman Lena only recognised from Russian posters and articles, Aleksandra Zaryanova, followed him through the gap, her own weapon in both hands. Her eyes widened in surprise. That was not a face she expected to be working for Overwatch. Zaryanova’s eyes narrowed harshly as she spotted Lena, turning to fire at her without hesitation.

Lena dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way as Zaryanova aimed her particle beam towards both her and Winston. Her eyes darted for openings, trying to figure out a strategy for her to be able to get past, when she heard the voices of men coming from the same direction Zaryanova had come from. It seemed there’d be no way to reach her pulse pistols in the training hall without getting killed or injured in the process. She could hear gunfire reports back in the direction that she’d come from, where Widowmaker had gone.

The particle beam swung, and Lena blinked out of the way and behind a corner as the stream of energy scorched the ground where she had been standing seconds earlier.

“Winston, you alright, luv?” She shouted, trying to be heard over the sound of the spray of bullets from Overwatch agents and high pitched whine of the energy beam. Lena watched as Winston deployed his shield.

“I have this Lena!” He grunted as a bullet managed to graze his shoulder, hitting between armour plates, “Try to get a weapon and a comms device from somewhere else!” He called back and let out a roar, diving towards where Zaryanova stood. 

She watched as they both crashed back through the wall they’d just made a hole in, creating yet another right beside it. Lena used the distraction to head back the way she’d came, doing her best to listen out for the source of any gunfire. The last thing she needed was to get caught out without a weapon. She rapidly blinked down the hallways, grateful that Winston had been convinced to lessen the restrictions on the accelerator to let her blink and recall more often than the original three second safety interval. Soon she could hear the distinct sound of Widowmaker’s rifle, causing her to change direction, only to bump directly into an invisible Sombra. 

“Learn to look where you’re going, Speedy.” Sombra said, her usual smug persona replaced by a grim expression.

“You alright, luv?” Lena stuck a hand out to help Sombra up who only gave a grunt in reply, “Got any idea of how they knew where to find us?” 

“Got an idea, seems they managed to stick a tracker to one of us somehow, haven’t had the chance to narrow down who it is... Once I have the chance to get out, and get access to all my gear again, I should be able to find out.” 

Lena nodded, she could tell Sombra was being intentionally vague but there really wasn’t much time for questions, “You know about whether the armoury is safe to go to or not?”    
“It’s been cut off by Morrison and a few other the other Overwatch pendejos, you can take mine for now.” She replied, pulling her weapon out of her holster and placing it in Lena’s palm, “Should be able to get out of here without need of it, you are a little less obvious, rapido.” Sombra gave her a small smile, obviously trying to sound somewhat positive about it all. 

Lena watched as Sombra stepped away, turned her cloaking device back on. She turned the weapon over in her hands, seeing that she only had one clip to last her until this was over or she was able to get herself another weapon. With the sound of Widowmaker’s rifle firing again, Lena turned on her heels and headed towards the source of it.

She was eventually lead to the main hangar where all dropships and armoured cars were kept, finding a much larger battle than she could have ever expected going on. Reyes was wielding both his shotguns, fighting in only in a t-shirt and grey sweatpants, ammunition strapped to his body. Doomfist was also there, armoured gauntlet on arm but barefoot. There was even a woman that Lena didn’t recognise, tall and thin with bright red hair, wielding some kind of healing device. It seemed that they had managed to catch every single one of the Talon agents completely by surprise. Widowmaker was perched up on a ledge, doing her best to fire her weapon in the enclosed hangar without making the situation worse, firing her grappling hook to get out of the way whenever necessary. She watched her for a few moments, seeing how careful she was being, trying to take decent shots within the chaos of it all. 

Lena blinked down the stairs, heading towards one of the dropships in the corner, knowing they usually had extra weapons stored in the underside. She popped the latch on the compartment and took out one of the assault rifles, it was far from ideal with her personal fighting style - far too large and powerful - but it was better than only having Sombra’s weapon. Lena found she had less qualms about firing on the Overwatch agents than she had on any previous mission. It was easier in the wake of the anger she felt towards Morrison, and any remaining concern for them had vanished when they attacked the Talon base in the middle of the night. Lena kept herself hidden behind the dropship, eyes scanning the area as looked for the perfect opportunity, spotting two Overwatch agents she didn’t recognise. She blinked behind them, emptying a few rounds into their backs with loud pops and watching them drop to the ground and wincing as her shoulder felt the kick of the heavy assault rifle. 

She continued on like that, trying to use her blinks to strategically place herself near her targets while drawing as little attention to herself as possible. The last thing she needed was to give her position away, she didn’t have much - any - practice with a weapon like this and would be incredibly vulnerable if cornered. After yet another nameless Overwatch agent hit the ground, Lena caught Mercy’s gaze briefly, scowling as the doctor looked away with a guilty drop of her eyes. Lena blinked back out of sight, hiding behind the nearest available piece of cover as she turned over the pieces in her mind. 

It made sense, now that she’d thought about it. Sombra did say someone had been tracked back here, someone who’d given away the location of the base and in reflection it was clear that Sombra knew it was her, but had chosen not to say anything, at least not yet. Lena couldn’t even wrap her mind around how Mercy had managed it at first until she thought back to the hug that Mercy had given her back in the alleyway, back when they talked, back when Mercy hugged her under the guise of comfort. She rested her rifle against the side of the vehicle as she dug around in her jacket pockets, eventually feeling an incredibly small but hard object stuck to the lining. Lena pulled it out, flicked it to the ground and stepped on it, crushing it under her heel. Guilt nipped at her mind, having let herself be vulnerable enough,  _ weak _ enough, to be tracked in the first place. If she hadn’t been so weak, they wouldn’t all be at risk like they were right now. 

Lena was pulled out of her thoughts at the sound of Widowmaker crying out, Widow’s Kiss tumbling from the ledge and hitting the concrete near Lena with a crack. She looked up, trying to find where Widowmaker had been perched and after not being able to see her, she tucked Widow’s Kiss under her arm and blinked her way up the stairs. Lena jumped from ledge to ledge, looking into the different rooms attached, desperately trying to find Widowmaker and no longer caring for if anyone saw her. A few bullets lodged themselves in the walls behind her head, skimming her hair, before she finally found them in a darkened store room. 

Morrison stood over where Widowmaker was on the floor, her back against the wall as if she had been trying to get away from him with nowhere to go. The lights on Morrison’s rifle partially illuminated Widowmaker’s face, what Lena could see of it was that she was bloody and bruised as if they had been in a fistfight. Her gauntlet was on the ground to the side, in pieces, the grappling hook completely unusable now. The cold ball of ice that had nestled in Lena’s stomach became a hot ball of rage, and blood thundered in her ears.

Lena dropped the assault rifle, letting the sound of it hitting the ground announce her presence and took Widow’s Kiss out from under her arm, using the element of surprise to strike Morrison in the middle of his back. He hadn’t noticed her presence fast enough to stop her attack, and it didn’t seem like Widowmaker had either. It forced him to stumble forward slightly, head dipping down and Lena used the opportunity to bring the butt of Widow’s Kiss onto his head, knocking him to the ground and he landed on his side with a pained groan. She dropped to her knees and straddled the side of his hip, reversing the roles of last mission. 

Lena didn’t know how many times she used Widowmaker’s weapon to strike Morrison’s face and head, the rage of seeing how he’d hurt Widow completely taking over. Was it seven? Fifteen? Or twenty-five times? She couldn’t remember, all of it turning into a blur. All she knew was the feel of blood spurting onto her face, on her hands, Morrison letting out a harsh exhale before going limp against the floor. It was only the sound of Widowmaker’s voice that brought her out of her trance. 

“ _ Chérie.”  _ Widowmaker started, obviously having repeated it several times already, waiting for Lena to stop, “I believe you’ve hit him more than enough times, Lena.” 

Lena looked down at his face, holding the rifle still in her hands, still raised above her head. His face was an unrecognizable lump covered in blood, his breathing weak. She let go of Widow’s Kiss, dropping it to the ground beside them and forcing herself up off his body, heading over to where Widowmaker lay. Now that she was brought out of whatever rage induced mess that was, Lena could finally focus on the fact that Widowmaker was still injured. She reached up the wall, trying to find the light switch, flicking it as soon as she felt it. 

Both of them flinched at the sudden brightness of the room, and Lena bit back a gasp as she finally got a good look at Widowmaker. Her face looked a lot worse in the light. Bruising surrounded both her eyes, her lip split and blood slowly dripping from her hair line. Lena’s eyes quickly searched over the rest of her body, looking for any other possible injuries. She’d been shot in the shoulder, probably what had caused her to cry out and drop her weapon in the first place. 

Lena pulled off her jacket, folded it up and pressed it against the wound. She had never been able to appreciate the experiments they must have run on Widowmaker to make her what she was now, even if that was the woman she had grown to care for, but at least now she could be somewhat grateful for her sluggish pulse. The amount of blood coming out of the wound was minimal compared to what it could be. She tilted her head down, trying to avoid Widowmaker’s eyes as she tried to reach for the comms device in her ear, being careful not to exacerbate the sniper’s injuries. She removed it from Widowmaker’s ear, wiping it quickly on her shirt before putting it into her own, turning it on.

“Uhh… We have a gunshot injury in the hangar, in the storeroom, requesting medical attention ASAP.” Lena did her best to try hide the shaking in her voice as she radioed in for help, keeping her eyes averted as she felt tears forming already, threatening to spill over.

“Why are you crying, chérie?” Widowmaker asked, sounding pained and winded. 

“B-Because this is all my fault. If I hadn’t been so  _ stupid, so naive,  _ none of us would be in this situation. You wouldn’t be injured, it’s  _ all my fault. _ ”

Widowmaker raised her uninjured arm and managed to cup Lena’s face, brushing away some of the tears with her thumb. She opened her mouth to speak and to try comfort Lena and ease some of her guilt when two medics made their way through the door. They forced Lena to sit back and let them have access to Widowmaker’s injuries. She knew she should have gotten up, forced herself to go back to the fight and help the others but she couldn’t bring herself to. Even when Widowmaker had been removed from the room for extraction by dropship, Lena couldn’t get herself to move. 


	20. Picking Up The Pieces

After they’d manage to push back the Overwatch forces, making them retreat back to their ORCAs, it had been a chaotic rush to abandon the base. The medics had airlifted Widowmaker and the other seriously injured agents out to another base immediately, leaving Lena behind to collect whatever things they could bring with them. She’d filled a bag with enough clothes for the both of them and picked up a few books that Widowmaker had been reading, only taking her bomber jacket from the hook on the way out. Lena didn’t like having to leave behind most of her belongings for a second time, but at least there was a good chance that she could come back for them in future. 

The first thing Lena did when she eventually got transported to the new base was head straight for the medbay, trying to get to Widowmaker as soon as possible. As soon as she found her bed, she dropped the bags to the ground and sat on the chair beside it, taking hold of Widowmaker’s hand. 

“Hey, luv, how’re you feeling?” She asked, trying to shuffle the chair closer. Widowmaker only seemed to be half awake, still exhausted from whatever they’d done to close the wound in her shoulder. 

“Fine. Tired.” Widowmaker said, squeezing Lena’s hand. 

They sat in silence for several minutes, Widowmaker letting her eyes fall closed and resting her head back against the pillows behind her. Lena continued to stare, as if looking away would result in her death. Widowmaker could feel it and opened one eye, peering down at where Lena sat. 

“You do not have to sit and watch me the entire time, chérie. Nothing will happen if you go back to bed, you need your own rest.” She said as she raised her hand to Lena’s cheek, brushing her knuckles along it. 

“Yeah… Well… I know that but…” Lena trailed off, leaning into the contact but also frowning, keeping her eyes averted under Widowmaker’s gaze.

“You still feel guilty, mon chou?” 

“Guilty?” Lena feigned.

“I do remember you saying that it was ‘all your fault’. What did you mean?” Her hand moved from Lena’s cheek, carding through her hair instead.

Lena kept quiet for a few moments, not wanting to admit what had happened but Widowmaker’s patience ate through her resistance, “Sombra told me they’d manage to track us back to base, not saying how she knew or if she knew who they’d tracked. Found the tracker stuck in the inside of my jacket pocket. I let Mercy hug me, gave her the opportunity to do it. Figure Sombra probably knew that, maybe wanted to spare my feelings.”

“It is not your fault.”

“Of course it is, I wasn’t careful, I put everyone at risk because I’m  _ weak _ . Couldn’t do what people wanted me to do,  _ expected _ me to do. I-” She was cut off by Widowmaker shushing her, pressing her index finger to Lena’s lips.

“Do not speak like that. Come here.” Widowmaker said, gesturing for Lena to join her up on the bed. 

Lena hesitated for a moment, eyes darting between Widowmaker and the spot on the bed beside her. Eventually an uncharacteristic soft smile was what coaxed Lena to move, and she climbed up on the bed, trying not to touch Widowmaker as if she might break. The gentility was meet with a tut and an eyeroll as Widowmaker pulled her tightly against her, encouraging Lena to rest her head against her shoulder as she hummed. It didn’t take long for Lena to fall asleep against her. 

 

After Lena had slept for a few hours and had been convinced by Widowmaker that nothing was going to happen if she let her be out of her sight for the afternoon, her first stop was where Sombra had relocated herself to. She found her in the basement, where Winston’s new lab would be set up, along with both Gabriel and Winston all crowded around a bunch of monitors. Lena cleared her throat to announce her arrival.

“Hola Speedy.” Sombra said, sparing a quick glance over her shoulder and gesturing her to join them with the flick of her wrist. 

“Whatcha guys looking at?” Lena asked, standing on her tippytoes to peer over Gabriel’s shoulder. 

“I’ve been keeping why I left Overwatch to myself for the most part, until now. After last night, I feel it’s a good time to share. I took with me when I left the files for Blackwatch.” He said in a low voice, almost an angry tone.

“Blackwatch?” Lena raised an eyebrow, confused. She’d known that whatever Gabriel had done at Overwatch was kept relatively quiet but she’d never heard of Blackwatch.

“Secret part of Overwatch, amiga. Basically how they’d take care of anything that wouldn’t do well in the press. Gabe here was in charge.” Sombra answered for him, still searching through the files. 

“If you ran it and knew what it was like, why’d you leave?” Lena looked up at him, watching as he turned to face her.

“As time went on, the boundaries on what Blackwatch would and wouldn’t do, blurred,  _ a lot _ . Human experimentation was what really caused me to leave. At first it was on willing subjects only, it was just mildly illegal. Eventually it became… more than that.” He pursed his lips, eyes avoiding Lena’s. It was obvious what he meant even if he didn’t want to say it out loud.

“What do you plan to do with these, Gabriel?” Winston asked, pushing his glasses back against the bridge of his nose. 

“As far as I know, they have no clue that I copied these before I left. I’ve been sitting on them and considering what to do with them. Obviously Jack is completely out of control, someone needs to stop him.” 

“Obviously.” Lena murmured.

“I want to confront him first. I’ve known Jack for years, maybe he’ll listen to what I have to say about this. He knows everything that’s going on in these files, no doubt about that. Over time he came to encourage this sort of behaviour. It’s why I had to leave.”

“But if you’re sure of how involved Jack is in this, why would you bother with wanting to confront him?” Winston looked at him curiously.  

Gabriel’s expression was tired, and the heavy sigh he let out only made him look even more exhausted. “We’ve been through a lot together. Overwatch, the crisis... at the very least I owe him a chance to make things right, to shut down Blackwatch for good.” 

“And if he doesn’t?” Lena asked.

“I would figure Sombra would have some ideas about what to do with the information in those files. It’s why I brought them to her.” 

“I have  _ plenty  _ of ideas, amigo.” She said absentmindedly, leaning in closer as she opened a file that got her interest in particular.

Winston got up and headed back across the room, returning to setting up his equipment on a nearby bench, giving Lena a chance to talk.

“I... wanted to apologise to you guys.”

“Apologise?” Gabriel asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Lena bowed her head in shame.

“I - Yeah, all of last night. It was my fault, I wasn’t careful because I didn’t want to hurt anyone from Overwatch… and they tracked me down.” 

“No one blames you, Speedy.” Sombra said, not even taking her eyes away from the displays in front of her as she spoke. 

“It’s not easy to work against people you used to know, people you used to work with. No one blames you for your hesitation.” Gabriel patted her on the back and gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. 

“I won’t hesitate from now on, I know what they’re up to now, someone has to stop them. Someone has to stop Morrison.”  

“That’s the spirit, amiga!” Sombra looked up at her, a genuine smile crossing her face, “Took you long enough but that’s okay, finally on the right side of things now.” 

“So, how’re you going to confront Morrison?” Lena asked, looking at Gabriel. 

“I figure maybe in a week I would take one of the dropships and confront him at Swiss HQ.”

“Just like that? Walk right in?” 

“They still haven’t even admitted that Winston and I have resigned, they’re still committing to the idea that you died in the Slipstream. They have no way or stopping me from walking in the front doors without it being a chaotic PR mess.” 

“Well… I’m coming too,” She raised a hand to stop Gabriel’s protests before he even started, “You know both me and Widow will want to help, nothing you can say to stop us. Plus, if you can’t convince him, I want to see him get some justice, if anything.” Lena grinned up hopefully at him, watching as he pursed his lips, considering it.

Gabriel let out a sigh, his shoulders sagging, unable to resist Lena’s pleading, “Alright, fine. You can come along too. I call the shots and you can’t be soft on this.” 

“Of course, Gabe. Anything you say.” 


	21. It's All in the Details

Widowmaker rolled her eyes as Lena followed her all the way from the medbay to the new room they were to share on this base. She hovered close the entire time as if she thought Widowmaker would keel over at any moment, only just resisting helping her walk entirely. When Lena rushed ahead to open the door for her, she raised her eyebrow at Lena, issuing her a look as she walked through the door. She had been seriously injured during the fight, taking a bullet to the shoulder and both of her eye sockets were fractured, the rest of it had just been bruising and cuts.

“Do you wanna sit down? Lie down?” Lena asked, looking up at her like an eager puppy.

“I… I would like to lie down.” Widowmaker said, heading towards the bed and when she felt Lena’s hands on her, trying to guide her onto the bed, “ _ Chérie _ , I am injured, not completely unable to do anything without assistance.” 

Lena pouted as she let go of her, letting her get onto the bed and under the cover without her help. She took the desk chair and sat down on it, wheeling closer to the side of the bed. Before Lena could open her mouth to ask her  _ one more time  _ about how she was feeling, Widowmaker changed the subject. 

“You never said what you are doing with Sombra and Gabriel, mon chou, tell me about it?” She asked, reaching out to brush Lena’s hair out of her eyes. 

“Well, turns out Gabriel brought a bunch of Overwatch files with him when he left, not like the technology related stuff that Winston took, but details of the things Overwatch’s been doing without approval or public knowledge. Human experimentation, black ops in nations that didn’t ask for help, y’know, stuff like that.” Lena let her eyes fall shut in bliss as Widowmaker slid her hand through her hair, scratching lightly at her scalp.

“I see. What does he plan to do with those? I am surprised he has not released the files already.”

“Something like that yeah. He wants a chance to confront Morrison first, have some sort of gross dad man to man thing, but he’s gunna release the files if he doesn’t step down on his own and such.” Lena opened her eyes when Widowmaker made a curious hum. 

“That does not sound like... it will go well. How will he get into the Switzerland Headquarters? When he does get inside, what is the plan from there? I do not believe he will be able to convince Morrison to see the light, cherie. Not with the way he spoke about you, about Talon, as he attacked me.” 

Lena’s eyes opened, a frown forming on her face even while enjoying the small bits of affection that Widowmaker was giving her, “Well, Overwatch hasn’t made Gabriel’s resignation public and they still claim that I’m dead even when they know I’m not. Front guards won’t know the difference.”

“Do not tell me you are planning to go too, Lena?” The hand in Lena’s hair stopped, pulling away to take hold of her chin. 

“ _ Well _ , I’m gunna try help Gabe do what he needs to do to feel good about releasing those files sometime soon. Don’t think he’ll be able to convince Morrison at all, seems like he’s too deep in what’s going on for that to happen but he can try I guess. I’m going just give him some back up, said you might be interested too.” 

Widowmaker raised an eyebrow, pursing her lips at the idea of having been volunteered, “Perhaps I can join you both, at the very least to keep you from being killed.” She rolled her eyes as Lena giggled, leaning forward over the bed to hug her tightly. 

“I knew you liked me. Think I’ve got you wrapped around my finger.” Lena sat back up, holding up an index finger and wriggling it where Widowmaker could see, earning a scoff.

“You must think very highly of yourself, mon chou.” 

“Maybe I do.” Lena smirked.

Widowmaker licked her lips and grabbed the collar of Lena’s jacket, pulling her closer, “I may be injured, but…” She trailed off as she pressed a few kisses to Lena’s jaw, “How about you keep me entertained, cherie? Being in bed all day is incredibly boring.” 

“Mmm…” Lena hummed as Widowmaker began kissing down her neck, nipping at the skin, “I think I might be able to help with that.” 

 

Widowmaker pinched at the bridge of her nose, the corners of her lips twisting with frustration. Gabriel had organised for her, Lena, Sombra and him to meet in one of the briefing rooms to discuss going to the Overwatch Swiss HQ as soon as Widowmaker’s injuries were completely healed the upcoming week. Presently, Sombra and Gabriel were arguing over the small details of everything and it was giving her a headache. Lena was swiveling her chair back and forth, not particularly interested in their fighting, until the pair began to raise their voices, the argument moving from English to Spanish. 

"No tenemos que ser discretos, no me impedirán caminar por la puerta principal." Gabriel said, gesturing angrily with both hands. 

"Puta, pendejo, ?eres estúpido? Lena debería estar muerta y Widowmaker es Widowmaker, no puedes simplemente entrar por la puerta."

"Tienes una idea mejor, perra?"

Widowmaker raised an eyebrow as the pair continued to argue in a language that neither her nor Lena could even understand, turning her chair to speak to Lena instead. She raised her hand to reach out and play with Lena’s hair, getting her attention and her to sit still. 

“Can you understand them?” Lena asked, looking up at her.

“Non. Even if I could, I am sure their argument would not make much sense.” 

Lena leaned over in her chair to rest her head completely against Widowmaker’s upper arm, relaxing under her touch. Widowmaker had quickly found out as she’d gotten to know Lena that the easiest way to get her to sit still was to give her physical contact to focus on, usually by playing with her hair. Widowmaker enjoyed the contact and silence between them, tuning out the figh. It would be easier to let Gabriel and Sombra wear themselves out before attempting to make a proper plan. 

“Hey Widow?” Lena murmured against her, only just loud enough for her to hear. 

“Mmm?” 

“Do you think wishing someone dead makes you… I dunno… evil?” 

Widowmaker looked down at her, raising an eyebrow, “Do you forget who you are talking to, chérie? My occupation requires ending the lives of strangers, I am lead to believe that it is supposed to be worse than wishing for one specific person to die. Who do you-”

“Oi, Speedy, araña. You going to lend us a hand in sorting this out?” Sombra called out from behind them.

Widowmaker pursed her lips, “We will talk about this later,” She said before pulling away from Lena, turning back to face where Sombra and Gabriel stood, “We were waiting for you two to stop your petty fight in a language neither of us understand.” 

“Figured it out yet?” Lena asked as she spun herself back around to face them, the grin she was wearing concealing the emotion she had been showing just moments ago. 

“Not yet, we need someone to settle the argument.” Gabriel grumbled, giving Sombra a pointed look as he spoke.

“The answer is simple.” Widowmaker spoke up, not even attempting to question what had been previously discussed, “We leave the night before, the date does not matter, pick one. We stay in a nearby safe house and wait for the next day. Reyes will enter through the front door as planned, it will draw Morrison out for a confrontation in public, something he will wish to avoid. I will provide support from a location in the area that I scout out. Lena will use one of the alternative entrances to get inside in case anything were to go wrong. I presume you have the plans for the base and know all the possible entries she can take?” Widowmaker asked, watching as Sombra and Gabriel exchanged a look as if they’d just received a dressing down. 

“Sounds… good. We’ll leave tonight then, assuming no one has any objections to that.” Gabriel replied after a few moments, nodding. 

Widowmaker rose from her seat after a few seconds of silence between them, no one bringing up any objections, “If that is the case, we will leave and see you tonight. Come now, chérie.” She said, tugging on the collar of Lena’s jacket for her to follow. 

 

The pair returned to their room in silence. Widowmaker watched Lena closely, curious as to the conversation she’d attempted to have earlier. Lena kept her eyes largely glued to the floor until they slipped through the door. She stood in the middle of the room, fiddling with the zipper of her jacket, avoiding Widowmaker’s gaze, knowing that she was going to press her on what she’d started. 

“The person you wish were dead, it is Morrison, yes?”

Lena let out a loud sigh, shoulders sagging, “Yeah, been thinking about Gabe’s plan and just realised I’ve been hoping it goes wrong, y’know? Hoping that Morrison does what we think he’ll do and refuse to step down and hand himself over, just so I can see him get what he deserves. Doesn’t matter if it’s me or Gabe who does it.” 

“I do not see a problem with that, chérie.” Widowmaker said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed directly in front of Lena. 

“How can you not? I should want to see him stand trial or something.” 

“Because your anger is understandable. Everything that has happened to you, he is the cause of it. Also, it would make me a hypocrite. There is the English phrase, something about pots and kettles, yes?” 

Lena snorted a laugh and wiped at her face with the sleeve of her jacket, “Yeah, something about pots and kettles.” She repeated, “You got someone you want dead, luv? Someone you hate?” 

“Oui,” Widowmaker paused, biting at her lower lip, “Someone like that. Though that doesn’t matter now, mon amour. We need to be ready to leave soon.”

Lena wrapped her arms around Widowmaker’s waist, pressing her face against her chest, “Soon, yeah, but not _ just yet _ .” 


	22. Lena's Revenge

Lena was jostled out of her sleep by the dropship making a rough landing in Switzerland. She let out a frustrated grunt and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, her first thoughts being about how she could have done that better than whoever they let fly these planes. Widowmaker slipped in her bookmark between the pages of the novel she’d been reading, 1984, yet another book she’d insisted she give a try. It brought a smile to her face to see how Widowmaker had grown to enjoy different hobbies that weren’t related to firing her rifle. 

She quickly unbuckled the straps keeping her in her seat and stood up, reaching for the bag she’d brought with her. Lena had packed enough clothing for a couple days and extra pulse bombs just in case anything came up. The dropship left them just outside of Zurich, an hours drive from the safe house Talon had and just over an hour and a half from the Overwatch HQ. A car waited for them outside the plane, ready to take all four of them through. 

Gabriel commandeered the front passenger seat, leaving the back to her, Widowmaker and Sombra to share. Lena rolled her eyes as she was stuck in the middle, the logic being that she was the smallest of them all. She managed to make the most of it, nuzzling at the outside of Widowmaker’s arm until she lifted it and wrapped it around Lena’s shoulders. She was always reluctant to show affection in public, even around Gabriel and Sombra but Lena usually got her way with enough prodding.  

Lena spent a majority of the drive into Zurich thinking about the conversation they’d had a few hours ago, the comment Widowmaker had made about having someone she did indeed want dead, to kill. It was rare for her to ever admit to having strong emotions or beliefs about anything and those she  _ had _ owned up to were all in relation to Lena. She wondered about whether it had anything to do with her being turned into the Widowmaker and the experiments they had run on her. Widowmaker had always brushed off any questions she had about it by saying beyond the occasional nightmare, that she could barely remember any of it, though Lena had always suspected that to be false but she never pushed more than what seemed comfortable.

“You look deep in thought, chérie. Is there something wrong?” Widowmaker asked, bringing Lena back to reality.

“Uh, no, luv. I’m alright. Was just thinking about some things, nothing important.” She smiled up at her. Widowmaker’s eyes examined her closely for a few moments before she nodded, letting Lena have her space. 

Once the car pulled up at the safe house, Lena was grateful to be able to stretch her legs. Even though it had only been an hour, she’d never been able to stand long distance travel in cars after her parents, preferring to walk or fly. It was also hard to keep still for so long, at least strapped into her jumpseat on the Talon dropship she could swing her legs back and forth. 

Despite Lena’s protests, Widowmaker carried both her own and Lena’s gear inside the house, dropping them by the mattress they’d be sharing. This safe house was far less elaborate than the others Lena had been able to visit so far, it had the absolute bare minimums, a kitchenette, two double mattresses on the floor in each room, a desk and a couch. Her lips twisted as she examined the room she and Widowmaker were to share before giving a quick shrug of her shoulders. She’d put up with worse. 

“I found a Monopoly set in here!” Gabriel called out amongst the sound of the opening and closing of cupboards, “Who wants to play?” 

“I do! Just so you know, Widow has a thing for cheating.” Lena giggled as she practically bounced her way over, leaving Widowmaker to scoff behind her.  

 

The following morning Lena decided to get up early with Widowmaker. She was leaving before everyone else to scout out the best vantage point for the main entrance to the Overwatch HQ. Lena looked away as Widowmaker broke down the front door of the adjacent apartment and rendered the occupant unconscious. She’d at least given Lena that concession, choosing to let him live even if it were inconvenient. Widowmaker took the extra time they had from their early start to find the perfect angle, rearranging the table to be level with the window sill and assembling Widow’s Kiss. 

It was still amazing to watch the practiced efficiency with how Widowmaker prepared herself whenever she had the opportunity to take her time to find the best position, no matter how many times Lena had seen it now. Widowmaker rested the rifle on top of the table, peering through the scope to look at the main entrance of the building, scanning the few security guards on the inside. She gave the satisfied hum she always made whenever she’d set up just the way she’d hoped. Widowmaker shifted back and off the table, leaving Widow’s Kiss where it was propped up on the table. 

“Everything setup just the way you like it?” Lena asked with a smile, already knowing the answer.

“Oui.” She replied, reaching up to tighten her high ponytail, “I am ready,” Widowmaker paused again, pursing her lips slightly before issuing Lena with a smirk, “There is still an hour before Gabriel has planned to enter the building. Would you be interested in… passing the time, chérie?” 

Lena ran her tongue over her lips, “Not surprised you got a thing for fucking on missions, luv.” She raked her eyes over Widowmaker’s body, considering, “How ‘bout you get on your knees then, pet.” 

 

They managed to distract themselves for almost the entire hour, finally getting dressed again when they could hear Gabriel grumbling at Sombra through the comms. Lena wiped her mouth off on the wool collar of her bomber jacket and began pulling her gloves on. She could see through the window that Gabriel was on the street below, as he was relaying through the earpieces. It was time for her to follow. 

Lena pressed a kiss to Widowmaker’s cheek and disappeared from the apartment, heading down to the ground floor in a series of blinks. She followed the instructions Sombra had given her the night before, using every chance she could to blink around the side of the building to find the poorly attended to entrance. It didn’t surprise her that even though Overwatch paid out the ass for security at the front, but still left multiple points of entry that were basically left open for anyone to walk inside. 

She slipped inside as quickly and quietly as possible, taking position as close as she could to the main entrance, to be waiting at the ready for anything Gabriel asked her to do. Lena watched in silence from behind the corner as he made his way through the front entrance, smirking at the sight that he was right. Overwatch’s plan to save face by refusing to admit that both Gabriel and Winston had resigned had panned out, the soldiers at the front recognising him and letting him inside without so much as an ID check. He spoke to one of the guards, she could hear him through the earpiece.

“Could you go find and bring me Commander Morrison? Don’t tell him it’s me asking, just do it.” 

The guard leaned back slightly, seeming to be eyeing Gabriel in confusion but Lena couldn’t really tell from where she was hiding. He gave in and headed off to follow Gabriel’s instructions. It was only a five minute wait before Jack made his appearance, rounding the corner and immediately stiffening at the sight of Gabriel standing inside Overwatch, having walked through the front door. 

“This is what happens when you have too much pride, Jack.” Gabriel called out, “I think it’s about time we talked, yeah? Take me somewhere private.” 

Morrison hesitated for a moment, eyes darting between the front doors and where Gabriel stood, considering getting the guards to remove him. Lena was amazed at the burning hatred building inside her, the feeling seemed to get worse each time she saw him. It was almost overwhelming, leaving her only barely able to rein herself in with her fists tightly clenched. He eventually nodded, gesturing for Gabriel to follow him. Lena watched as they walked, slipping into what she recognised as the armoury. She continued to wait for Gabriel’s signal. 

 

Jack ordered everyone inside of the armour out, leaving them both alone inside the large room. It was just as Gabriel remembered it, nothing had changed since he left months ago now and he was glad for it. If anything did go wrong today, at least there would be no surprises. 

“What do you mean, ‘this is what happens when you have too much pride’?” Jack asked, hands resting on his hips, fingers gripping tightly at his uniform. 

“Having your enemies walk right through your front door, is what I mean. Thought you were smart enough to get that much. Guess not.” Gabriel smirked at Jack’s scowl, glad to have gotten one dig in at least. 

“What do you want? I assume if you were here to attack us, you wouldn’t have given away the surprise or have come on your own.” 

“I’m here to give you one last chance to resign and hand yourself over quietly before I release the files I have.”

“What files?” Jack growled, taking a few steps forward. 

Gabriel outstretched his arm as if trying to create space between them, “The Blackwatch files, the ones that show you approved of human experimentation of both willing and unwilling subjects just to get results. That you knew what Moira O’Deorain was doing the entire time. The black ops you ran in other countries without permission from anyone. Turn yourself over for your crimes and I’m sure they’ll do what they can to prevent both your name and Overwatch being smeared throughout the papers. Well… Smeared any worse than what they’re already doing.”

“You participated in all of it you bloody hypocrite! You even let her experiment on you.”

“Maybe so, but at least I tried to resist all of this. I didn’t approve of any of this. Either you take responsibility for your crimes or I show the world what you really are.”

Jack’s reply was a wordless growl of rage, as he grabbedone of the rifles off a nearby rack and fired it at Gabriel. Gabriel managed to dissipate into smoke to avoid getting hit by any of it, letting himself reform behind an armoured vehicle. He was about to give Tracer the signal to join him when he heard the sound of her accelerator as she blinked into the room, pulse pistols in hand already. She rapidly discharged both weapons at him before blinking out of the way of return fire. 

Gabriel used the opportunity as Jack’s back was turned, looking for Tracer, to step out with both shotguns in hand. Jack rolled out of the way, holding his weapon to his chest until he ended up kneeling on the ground. A sharp cry echoed throughout the armoury as a bullet clipped Gabriel’s shoulder before he could get out of the way or change form. Tracer watched as he seemed to fade away into a dark mist before she reached behind herself, grabbing one of the pulse bombs attached to the back of her accelerator. 

She blinked forward, coming up behind Jack as he was standing up and sticking the bomb to the middle of his back. Tracer grinned triumphantly for a moment, trying not to think about the probably disgusting amount of glee she was feeling knowing that he was going to die as she blinked behind cover. Her victorious grin was quickly melted away into horror out as Jack removed the bomb and tossed it out of the way. Time slowed down as the bomb arced up in the air, spiralling down with an innocuous  _ clack _ next to a rack of ammunition.

 

Widowmaker squinted through her scope in her new position. Both Gabriel and Lena had left her line of sight, heading further inside the building and she had to move to a second location in hopes to find them. She only briefly saw movement inside the armoury before there was an explosion quickly followed by several others, taking the building down with it. Widowmaker pulled back, holstering her rifle over her shoulder as she fired her grappling hook. 

She got as close as she could to what used to the be Overwatch HQ, desperately searching the rubble with her eyes for any signs of Lena or Gabriel before she made her way down to the smouldering ruins. 

She would look through the ruins piece by piece till she found them. Dead or alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twoheartedalien - Today at 9:54 AM  
> why am i a heathen for a wool collart  
> Nox - Today at 9:57 AM  
> not for a wool collar, for making her wipe her face on the collar  
> do you know how hard shearing jackets are to clean?  
> you fucking heathen!  
> twoheartedalien - Today at 9:57 AM  
> lmfao  
> she's saving the sex juices for later  
> idk  
> Nox - Today at 9:58 AM  
> ... ew  
> nothing says sexy like a moldy cotton lining :|


	23. Things Change

Widowmaker had spent every available minute digging through the ruins of the Overwatch HQ armoury, trying to find any sign of Lena underneath it all. She hadn’t experienced this overwhelming feeling before, her skin was crawling and her teeth were on edge, her heart rate having picked up from its usual sluggish pace as she searched for signs that Lena was alright. 

She knew she didn’t have much time before the authorities showed up and she would be forced to make a decision, leave Lena and Gabriel behind or risk being captured. It was as she crouched and began shifting a new lot of concrete that she heard a soft groan of pain. Widowmaker continued to move the pieces until she found Lena lying underneath, her face and hair caked with dust and dried blood. She coughed as she was exposed to fresh air, forcing one eye open to look up at Widowmaker hovering over her. 

“Lena?” She asked, reaching in to brush her bangs out of her eyes, “Chérie? Are you alright?”  

After receiving what could only be described as a incoherent grumble, Widowmaker returned to shifting the concrete pieces off her body. Once Lena’s body was completely exposed, Widowmaker saw that she was largely uninjured, only minor cuts and bruises except for her right arm. Her bomber jacket was completely mangled up to the right elbow, the flesh below eviscerated. Widowmaker couldn’t tell exactly what had happened, but the exposed muscle and skin looked as if it had been burnt, bruised and cut open all at once. 

At the sound of emergency vehicle sirens, Widowmaker slid her arms underneath Lena’s body and picked her up, moving her body into a fireman’s carry. She knew it was far from ideal to move her when she had no idea whether Lena’s spine or head had been injured but she couldn’t leave her behind either. Her eyes skimmed around the area, trying to find any sign of Gabriel when she heard Sombra’s voice in her ear. 

“Araña, get out of there. I have Gabe back at the safe house. You need to leave  _ now _ .” Sombra’s tone was far more serious than she’d ever heard it. 

Widowmaker quickly took her advice, firing her grappling hook and doing her best to get out of sight before any of the authorities could see either of them. It took a little bit of extra time to make her way back to the safe house between making sure they weren’t being followed and carrying Lena’s weight on her shoulder. 

As she got close she saw the Talon dropship that had flown them in the previous night outside the building. Sombra was waiting for them at the ramp of the dropship, gesturing for them to hurry inside as they approached. Widowmaker dropped down to the ground as close to the building as she could, as gently as possible to avoid jostling Lena too much. She still gave out a pained grunt, not completely conscious. 

“How bad is she?” Sombra asked as Widowmaker made her way onto the craft. 

“Possible head injury. Severely injured arm. She could also have internal injuries that I am unaware of.” She replied as she shifted Lena’s body into a bridal carry, bringing her to a stretcher that Sombra had already had set out for them. Gabriel was already tucked into his own cot on the other side of the dropship but Widowmaker couldn’t bring herself to be concerned for him, not just yet. 

Sombra tossed her a first aid kit as soon as Lena was out of her arms. Widowmaker stayed knelt by Lena’s side as the plane took off, removing the tattered remains of her bomber jacket and doing her best to clean the multiple wounds on her arm, wrapping it up until they could get her real medical assistance. She strapped Lena into the stretcher to keep her body as still as possible before covering her with a fleece blanket. 

She used the last bits of gauze and antiseptic from the first aid kit to clean up the dust and dried blood from her face. Widowmaker chose to stay by her side instead of getting up to sit in one of the jumpseats. Normally she would refrain from being too affectionate towards Lena when the regular Talon canon fodder could see her but that was the last thing on her mind in this moment, choosing to treat her with the utmost care. 

 

When the plane arrived back at base, it had taken plenty of gentle coaxing from Sombra before Widowmaker let the medical team be the ones to carry Lena’s stretcher inside. She didn’t want to risk anyone’s incompetence possibly making her condition worse. They had settled on her following closely, being able to see Lena the entire time and her being allowed to sit nearby as they began to try evaluate the damage. 

She watched as they shifted her from the stretcher and onto the bed in the medbay, unbuckling the straps of the accelerator, the metal of which was covered in scrapes and dents. They placed the device aside and started cutting through Lena’s clothing, leaving her in just her underwear as they searched her body for further injury. Once they were satisfied that the only major injury that could be seen without any scans was that to her right arm, they settled a gown over her body. 

They ran scans on her head, spine and arm, finding that she had a concussion and a wrist fracture underneath all the tissue damage. The doctors spoke in hushed tones as they discussed their options in regards to Lena’s arm, the idea of amputation seemed to be the most likely outcome and they were afraid to mention it too loudly, not wanting to cause Widowmaker to have some sort of violent reaction.    
When that reaction did come, it wasn’t because of the suggestion that Lena might need to have her arm amputated but because of who walked into the medbay. It felt like her heart was stuck in her throat at the sight of Dr O’Deorain entering the room, tablet in hand. Widowmaker couldn’t bring herself to move at first, listening to her speaking to the doctors as they discussed an experimental treatment she’d been working on, one that could possibly save Lena’s arm. 

“Non.” 

Moira turned to look at where she had now stood up from her chair, a cruel smirk forming on her lips. It had been a long time since she had seen the geneticist so up close, not since her original conditioning what felt like years ago now. Her eyes flicked between where Widowmaker stood and Lena lying in bed. 

“I see you have developed feelings. That wasn’t part of the plan. Do we need you to come back in for reconditioning or are you going to let me do my job?” The corners of Moira’s mouth twitched, clearly amused by her behaviour.

Widowmaker tried to form the words needed to stand up to her, to prevent her from coming anywhere near Lena but found her mouth hanging open, her throat feeling dry. Moira huffed a small laugh before turning back to the other doctors standing around Lena’s bed. 

“As I was saying, I have been working on a new genetic treatment that should allow me to repair the tissue damage. If it succeeds, we would be able to save her arm.” 

“You are just looking for yet another test subject for your games,” Widowmaker clenched her fists, trying to stop the trembling in her hands, “You cannot touch her.” 

“You’re willing to deny her the chance to keep her arm simply because of your own emotions? Perhaps you  _ do _ require reconditioning.” She mused, her fingers tapping idly at the tablet in her hands as she examined Widowmaker with her eyes. 

“Do you even know what it could possibly do to her? Do you even know the side effects? Have you even tried it on a human before?” Widowmaker could feel her voice shaking as she spoke, her face warming slightly with embarrassment. 

“No, but there always has to be a first.” Moira’s lips twisted into a grin that made Widowmaker’s stomach roil, “I should think by now that your little… pet would be used to this.”

Widowmaker found her mouth moving before she could stop it, “As Lena would say, you are a bloody wanker.” 

Sombra’s hand enclosed around her wrist as she began to step towards Moira, clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention, “How about you all give me a chance to speak to araña here before any decisions are made, hm?”  

Once the doctors and Moira had moved to clear the room at Sombra’s request, Widowmaker was surprised by Lena’s voice, “That was kinda hot, luv. Should tell people they’re a bloody wanker more often.” She croaked, her throat obviously dry. 

Widowmaker slipped her wrist from Sombra’s grasp, walking closer to the bed and reaching out to cup Lena’s cheek, rubbing at her skin gently with her thumb. She frowned as Lena gave a small whine about needing water.

“We cannot give you anything before they take you in,” Widowmaker said apologetically, “How long have you been awake, chérie?” 

“Long enough to hear you rip into that woman, whoever she is…” Lena trailed off, obviously putting the pieces together, “You can decide for me, luv. Whatever you think is the right thing to do, we’ll do. Keep my arm, get rid of it, no matter what.” 

Widowmaker’s heart fluttered uncomfortably as she listened to Lena speak, realising exactly how much trust she was placing in her. She cleared her throat and started combing her fingers through Lena’s hair, fixing some of the mats in her hair from the dried blood.

“This should be  _ your _ choice, not mine.” 

“Look, this is real sweet, but we’re running out of time. Why not give it a chance? The worst thing that can happen is that they have to cut your arm off anyway, yeah?” 

“That is  _ not _ the worst thing that can happen… but I do see your point.” Widowmaker sighed, her eyes drifting back towards Lena, “It is up to you, mon amour. What do  _ you _ want?” 

“I can tell you don’t trust her… but you’ll be looking after me, right?” Lena chewed on her lower lip, “I think we should give it a chance, yeah? If they have to cut off my arm, then that’s how it is but we might as well try to keep it.” 

“As you wish.” Widowmaker kept her voice level, trying not to let how much the idea of letting Moira anywhere near Lena upset her as she leaned in, pressing a few quick kisses to the top of her head.

“Okay, are we good, amiga?” Sombra asked, one hand resting on her hip with an eyebrow raised.    
“Oui.” 

 

Widowmaker sat in the room they had assigned Lena for when she was to be brought back out of surgery, her knee bouncing nervously and her fingernails being torn at by her teeth. Sombra sat with her, arms crossed against her chest as she watched the sniper out of the corner of her eye. 

“You really don’t cope with stress well, do you, amiga?” 

She stilled her knee, dropping her hand to the arm of the chair, “I am not used to this  _ particular _ type of stress. This is… different. I do not like it.” 

“Of course it is. You love her.” Sombra felt a pang of sympathy at the way Widowmaker flinched at the words, “Haven’t said it yet, hm? But I’m right anyway.” 

Widowmaker said nothing in response, choosing to look away and let the topic of conversation die between them. She hadn’t even let herself begin to think about that yet, though she felt relatively certain that Lena would feel the same if she decided to voice such feelings. After a few moments of silence, Sombra finally changed the topic. 

“Gabe’s got some fucky thing going on with him. You know how he can you know…” Sombra flicked her wrist around, “Turn into smoke or whatever? He seems to be unable to stay together, when he does stay together, he looks terrible. Moira was brought in to fix him. That’s how she heard about Lena’s arm.” 

She made a curious noise in the back of her throat, urging Sombra to continue.

“I saw the explosion and called the dropship to the safe house instead.” She started, eyes watching Widowmaker carefully for her reactions as she spoke, “Not long after he showed up in a whole cloud of smoke and demanded to be brought inside, his voice was all super weird and he was acting super strange. Wouldn’t let me anywhere near me. Demanded to see Moira as soon as we got back then he passed out in the back of the ship. You guys showed up not long after. Did you see what happened in there?”

“I did not have a clear enough view through the windows.” Widowmaker replied, now nervously playing with her knuckles. 

“Lena managed to stick her pulse bomb to Morrison’s back, seemed to be dead for sure before he pulled it off and tossed it away. Hit some rack of ammunition I think, from what I saw on the monitors anyway. Blew the entire place up. Didn’t see him get out of the rubble or anything though. Maybe he finally got the hint and died.” Sombra mused, a small smirk playing on her lips. 

Widowmaker opened her mouth to speak when two nurses pushed Lena’s bed through the door to her room. She stood up quickly, making her way over once the bed was rolled back against the wall. The two nurses lingered, discussing Lena’s surgery in hushed tones before Sombra spoke up.   
“How about we give these two some space, hm?” She asked, gesturing to the door with the nod of her head. 

Sombra waited around for a few more moments as the nurses gathered up the few things they had left on Lena’s bed and left the room. She watched as Widowmaker reached out, cupping Lena’s cheek and brushing her thumb against it gently, taking it as her cue to leave them alone. 

“Désolée, chérie.” Widowmaker murmured now that it was just them.

An aching feeling tugged at her heart as she looked at Lena’s now amputated arm. She frowned heavily as it washed over her, leaning forward to press gentle kisses to the top of her head. Lena would probably take all of this better than she ever could. 


	24. Enter Reaper

Lena let out a pleased sigh as Widowmaker’s fingertips scratched lightly at her scalp, her face pressed into the crook of her lover’s neck. Widowmaker had refused to leave her room in the medbay since she’d gotten out of surgery yesterday, choosing instead to sit by her bed on a chair until Lena insisted on her at least lying down on the bed with her. 

They had been told that a ‘specialist’ who would be responsible for fitting her with a new prosthetic arm would be coming by to take measurements later in the afternoon. Sombra seemed thrilled by it, slipping in several times throughout the day to see if she’d arrived. At first Lena thought the excitement was about the person being an expert in their field but the more she heard Sombra talk, it felt like something more. Her suspicions were confirmed when Sombra brought her in. 

A slender Indian woman entered the room in the late afternoon, having just arrived off the dropship. She wore what Lena recognised immediately as a Vishkar Corporation uniform, sporting her own prosthetic arm which brought a smile to Lena’s face, it was somehow reassuring to know the person who would be taking care of her own arm had some personal experience. 

“I want you guys to meet Satya Vaswani,” Sombra started, one hand on either of Satya’s shoulders as she stood behind her with a proud grin, “She’s my girlfriend and just as brilliant as you’d expect her to be.” 

“So not very?” Widowmaker replied, one eyebrow raised and her lips twitching into a small smile as Lena giggled against her shoulder. 

“Oi! Insult me but not her.” Sombra sported an expression that bordered on a pout. 

Satya looked simultaneously exasperated by Sombra’s behaviour and amused by the exchange, the expressions on her face minute. She shrugged her shoulders slightly, encouraging Sombra to let go of her as she moved across the room, finding her way to the side of Lena’s bed that matched her now missing arm. Widowmaker took this as her cue to make her way off the mattress, taking a seat in a chair beside it instead. 

“Need me to do anything, luv?” Lena asked, smiling up at her as Satya stood over her, silent as her eyes examined her bandaged stump. 

She wordlessly brought the fingers of her organic hand to the arm, pulling the bandages that wrapped it undone to reveal the flesh underneath. The use of medical tech had sped up the healing process, enough so that even though only a day had passed, it looked more like a couple weeks since the surgery. 

“It is healing quite well. Do you mind if I touch you?” She asked, finally lifting her eyes to meet Lena’s curious gaze. 

“Um… Sure.” 

Satya quickly fished out a pair of gloves from a box sitting on the table beside the bed, slipping one on to both her organic and prosthetic hand. She began testing the stump, feeling the muscle connections underneath the skin and how it had been healing. A lot of it was information she already knew from the file given to her by Lena’s doctors as she arrived but it never hurt to be more thorough than required. She withdrew her hands, grabbing the bandages from where she had left them on Lena’s lap before redressing her arm and removing her gloves, tossing them into the small rubbish bin nearby. 

“Besides Talon authorised missions, are there any particular needs that have to be met by your new prosthetic?” Satya held her hand out expectantly to Sombra who after a quick scramble, passed over her tablet. 

Lena wet her lips before speaking, “I’m a pilot and I like to… draw in my free time. Gotta be able to continue to do both of those things.” She watched as Satya took notes on her tablet, waiting for there to be any further questions. 

“Any possible strenuous activities you might need it for?” She asked, not even glancing up from her device as she waited for Lena’s answer.

“Oh yeah!” Lena paused for a moment, gnawing at her lip, “Just gotta be able to keep fucking my girlfriend as much as I want to. Make sure it’s sturdy and watertight. Can’t risk it dying on me because…  _ liquid _ gets inside.” 

Sombra cleared her throat as Widowmaker sunk slightly in her chair, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment at Lena’s brutal honesty. Satya looked up at her, her brow furrowed slightly. She only hesitated for one moment before letting out a small sigh as she spoke. 

“Sombra had warned me that you would be like this. I did not believe her, she has a habit of exaggerating. Apparently I was wrong.” Satya murmured the last words to herself, her eyes flicking back down to the tablet as she wrote more notes.

“I don’t exaggerate!” Sombra protested, it largely falling on deaf ears as Satya continued talking. 

“I only require measurements of both your arms and I will be finished. You can continue…  _ whatever _ it was that you were doing before we arrived.” She drawled, taking the opportunity to take the measurements she needed. 

“I’ll have you know at least  _ this _ time we were behaving.” Lena pouted. 

 

The following day, Lena’s doctors cleared her to at least be able to walk around on base freely while she waited for Satya to finish designing her new prosthetic. Widowmaker had found her a temporary replacement leather jacket to wear until she could get her something else, helping her put it on and then folding the right sleeve up so it wouldn’t hang down. It had been nice to sleep in a private room with Widowmaker again, even two days had felt like far too long to have no proper privacy. 

Widowmaker carded her slender fingers through Lena’s hair gently, giving her a small smile as they stood in their room together. Even if it were because she lost her arm, it was nice to spend time together where there wasn’t always a pressing need of having to train or an upcoming mission on their mind. They hadn’t had the chance to spend much time together since Lena had been rescued from the Slipstream, having been thrown head first into training after she was able and then onto missions not long after. 

They’d decided on checking up on Gabriel first thing that morning, his own injuries hadn’t been much of a priority for either Lena or Widowmaker in the midst of her losing her arm. It made Lena feel a pang of guilt about not once bothering to check on Gabriel’s wellbeing. Sombra waited for them outside the door to his room in the medbay, they hadn’t given him clearance to leave his room yet. 

“How is he?” Lena asked as they approached, offering a small smile. 

“Just as bad as yesterday and the day before. His actual condition, that’s gotten better, whatever the fuck Moira did seems to be helping him hold together better instead of constantly fading in and out as smoke. His attitude though… he’s  _ furious _ . At Morrison and Mercy. Doesn’t want to talk though. You can try if you want though, Speedy.” 

Widowmaker eyed her curiously, obviously giving her the space to make her decision over whether or not to try going in there. She couldn’t let herself get out of this without trying at least once to see if he was alright, Gabriel had been a good friend and helped her a lot as she learned how to use her accelerator. Lena opened the door and slipped inside, leaving Widowmaker and Sombra back in the hallway. 

The curtains were pulled and the lights dimmed, Lena had to squint to see where Gabriel was lying in his bed. She walked towards him, clearing her throat and announcing her presence with a quiet ‘hello’. He said nothing to acknowledge her, eyes stuck on his hands in his lap. Lena frowned as she got closer, seeing why he seemed to be hiding himself away. Whatever had happened to him in the explosion had scarred his skin, covering most of his face and it seemed to continue on throughout his body, even down to the tips of his fingers. 

She took a seat in the chair beside his bed, her fingers playing nervously with the zipper of her jacket. It was one of those few situations where she had no idea what to say, whether to try cheer him up or to ask him about how he was feeling. Lena opted to stay silent in the end, to let him decide whether he wanted to talk instead of forcing it on him. It took nearly twenty minutes for Gabriel to finally break the silence between them. 

“So they ended up taking your arm after all, then?” He asked, his voice a touch more rough than she was used to. 

“Uh… Yeah. Moira tried to use some sort of treatment on my arm to see if she could reverse the tissue damage but it didn’t end up working. They ended up having to cut it off but it’s okay!” She beamed up at him, “I’m getting a fancy new replacement thanks to Sombra’s girlfriend.” Her smile faded as Gabriel’s mood didn’t seem to lift at all with her cheery tone. 

“We didn’t manage to kill Jack.” He grumbled.

“What do you mean?” Lena’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, “They didn’t find him under the rubble, he’s gotta be dead, yeah? He was the closest to the explosion too.” 

“They didn’t find him, dead or alive. Unless he was blown literally to pieces, he got out. Both of us managed to live, he could have too.” 

Lena’s shoulders sagged, the feeling of a heavy weight bearing down on her with the knowledge that Morrison was probably still out there and now had the ability to take advantage of the world thinking him dead. She nervously pulled at the fabric of her pants, twisting it between her fingers as she thought about what to say next. Lena desperately wanted to ask about what had happened to cause the scarring but knew it was far too direct of a question. 

“Who’s Moira to you? Apparently they brought her to you straight away, said you even asked for her specifically.”  

“She’s former Overwatch  _ and _ Blackwatch. While in Blackwatch, I let her run some of the later stage experiments on me to see if we could enhance our soldiers.” Gabriel shifted on the bed, sitting up straighter as if preparing for the questions he knew would come.

“Is that how you can do the smoke thing?” She asked, eyes wide with excitement. 

“Yes.” 

“So, why’d she need to come see you then? Make sure nothing happened that fucked with her stuff?” 

“Not really. Mercy… She found me in the rubble. I had turned myself to smoke before the explosion but I got caught underneath some of the concrete slabs. She managed to find me and I was, at that point, basically dead. I should have been dead. Instead, she used her nano tech to bring me back and  _ whatever the hell _ it is, it messed with the experiments Moira had run on me years ago. I couldn’t keep myself solid for more than a few minutes. Mercy is just as bad as Moira is, really.” 

Lena tilted her head to the side, brow furrowed, “What do you mean?” 

“You haven’t heard about Moira at all before now? Not anything to do with how she was asked by Overwatch and Blackwatch to leave?” 

“Nah, never heard of her before she came into my room offering to try fix my arm.” 

“She and Ziegler used to work together. Moira had already been serving at Overwatch as a geneticist and researcher for a few years at that point, beginning on the work that lead to both what Ziegler is developing now with her nanobiotics and the technology that Moira uses, not that I’ve really seen it much in action yet myself. According to official accounts, Moira began running experiments on herself to get the results she needed before moving onto willing human subjects like myself even though it wasn’t approved. From there she moved onto more… unwilling subjects. That was when she got caught and had been  _ politely _ asked to leave both Blackwatch and Overwatch. Ziegler claims she had no idea what Moira had been doing the entire time and that’s what the official records reflect. However, from my own personal experience, I know Mercy knew about the willing human subjects and Moira’s self experimentation and chose to look away as long as it was bringing in the results they needed.”    
Lena slumped down in her seat as she processed that information, pursing her lips slightly, “So she looked the other while all that was going on and got to keep her research and gets all the praise for everything, huh?” 

“Something like that,” Gabriel gave a slight chuckle, the first proper expression other than anger he’d shown since Lena entered the room, “Moira loathes her existence, she spent the entire time trying to work on me calling her a whole list of names.” 

Lena giggled, running her hand through her hair, “I can see why she’s not very popular anyway, she’s got a very  _ interesting _ bedside manner. When talking about being able to try a new experiment on me to save my arm, she looked like she was about to eat me.”

“Between Moira’s work and Mercy’s work being mixed, I look like...” Gabriel gestured to his face, “ _ This _ . Moira’s untested work may do completely nothing but you can never know what it might do to you as time goes on, it could have unintended side effects. You should have just let them cut off your arm without bothering. Anyway… Stay safe, Lena. I wish to be left alone.”  

Lena pushed herself out of her seat and made her way back to the door, obviously having managed to squeeze out all the information he’d wanted to give at this moment. Sombra and Widowmaker had been waiting outside curiously the entire time. 

“Did you manage to get him to speak to you, Speedy?” 

“I did, actually. Spent the first twenty or so minutes in complete silence though. He talked to me about some things that I might need to keep private but… It looks like we’re going to have to go ahead with the original plan to dump those Blackwatch files. How long will it take, Sombra?”

“If I start now, it should hit the media by early tomorrow morning.” She watched Lena curiously, wanting to ask her what he could have possibly said that warranted action so quickly but choosing to hold back. 

“Get it started then,” Lena started, her mouth set into a hard frown, “I think it’s time we hit Overwatch, and we need to hit them  _ hard _ .”   


	25. Something Something Levi Runs Out of Chapter Titles

Lena sat on the edge of the examination table in the medbay, her legs swinging back and forth, brimming with excitement. Widowmaker had come with her like she’d asked her to, though she was fairly certain even if she hadn’t asked, Widowmaker would have found a way to be beside her anyways. Once Satya entered the room with a protective case in hand, Lena shucked off her jacket with Widowmaker’s help and removed her shirt to give her access to her arm.  

“Sit still, chérie.” Widowmaker murmured once she noticed Satya’s raised eyebrow, too polite to tell Lena to stop swinging her legs.

“Oh, sorry!” Lena sat still for a few moments, giving Satya a chance to place the case on the table beside her and pop it open. 

Inside the case was the prosthetic arm that Satya had been working on for her, a sleek design made of hard light, coloured black to match the Talon colour scheme. Once Lena laid her eyes on it, her ability to keep still like Widowmaker had asked her to disappeared, excitement bubbling back up to the surface quickly. 

“Oh wow. That looks even cooler than I thought it would!” Lena said, wide eyed and grinning. Widowmaker carded her fingers through Lena’s hair with the roll of her eyes, doing her best to calm her down. Satya removed the prosthetic from the protective case and bent it at the elbow, holding up the end that was to connect with what remained of Lena’s arm. Lena jumped slightly as it connected to the socket that had been implanted in her arm by the doctors yesterday as per Satya’s request. The material was cold against her skin, and as Satya brought the arm online there was a moment of staticky, almost painfully jumbled sensory feedback, but it did nothing to wipe the smile off Lena's face. As the arm connected itself into her nerve endings, Satya reached in to make a series of adjustments, tuning the systems until it was as if she'd been born with it. 

Lena stared at it for a long moment before looking back at Satya. She gave Lena a slight smile and a nod, and Lena took a deep breath before willing herself to clench the fingers in the prosthetic. She watched with wide eyes as the fingers curled into a fist, marvelling at the immediate response and the smooth feeling of hardlight under her fingers.

“Wow.” Lena murmured as she began rotating her wrist, “Can barely tell much of a difference. Well, beyond me being part omnic now, that is. Widow, luv?” 

“Yes?” 

“C’m’ere and let me touch you.” She smiled up at Widowmaker who closed the small distance between them to allow Lena to reach out and cup her cheek with her prosthetic hand, “Feels real.” She said, brushing her thumb gently across Widowmaker’s cheek. 

Widowmaker leaned into the touch after a few moments once she had gotten used to the now cool feeling of Lena’s prosthetic hand, it wasn’t quite the same as the warmth Lena’s skin gave off but it was still Lena and it was enough.. Her shoulders relaxed after carrying the tension in her muscles for the past few days while they were waiting for her prosthetic. She hadn’t realised exactly how stressed she had let herself become after she’d pulled Lena from the rubble, and the relief that she felt at seeing Lena whole again surprised her with it’s intensity. Lena leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before remembering Satya was still there, eyes averted as if trying to give them some sort of semblance of privacy in their brief intimate moment. 

“Does it pinch at all?” Satya asked when she realised Lena had noticed her.

“Uh.. Nope, feels pretty good actually. Doesn’t even feel like I’m missing anything at all to be honest. You did a good job, guess Sombra was right about having a brilliant girlfriend.” Lena grinned at her as Satya huffed a small laugh.

“Perhaps. Talon would not request me specifically if I were not as good as Sombra claims me to be,” Satya shifted slightly where she stood, arms crossing against her chest, “It is water tight as requested with the fingers…  _ reinforced  _ as per required. You should be able to carry out all activities as needed.” 

“Wow, thanks, luv. I mean, I was joking about the watertight thing. Kind of…” At the look Satya gave her, Lena backpedalled, “Okay, maybe I wasn’t but I’m glad you listened.” 

Widowmaker chuckled and finally moved to face Satya, “Will you be staying here for a while?” 

“I will be here for a few more days, both to spend time with Sombra and to make sure there is nothing else you require with the prosthetic.” 

Lena grinned up at Satya. “Maybe you could come have dinner with us in the cafeteria tonight, would be nice to see who Sombra has been seeing and keeping secret. Gotta be something special about you.” 

“Possibly. If Sombra and I are not busy, we may join you.” Satya’s lips twitched into a slight smirk and Lena made a faux gagging noise.

“ _ Too much information! _ ” She squeaked. 

“Do not act like you are innocent, chérie. You have said far worse things.” 

 

Lena decided to tie the replacement jacket that Widowmaker had bought her around her waist. Even though Talon bases seemed to run a bit chilly with their air conditioning, Lena didn’t want to cover up her new arm. She couldn’t stop looking at it as she walked, bringing it up to her face and squeezing it into a fist. It fascinated her, how it felt almost like she hadn’t lost anything at all. Satya had done a fantastic job in matching the weight and length of her new prosthetic arm to how her organic one felt, she felt excited by the change rather than saddened at the loss of her arm. 

Their next stop was to check on Sombra’s progress with the Blackwatch files. Originally she had promised it would only take a day at most to go through them and send them to various media outlets for maximum spread of the information inside but the task had dragged on for several days past what Sombra had initially promised. 

Lena took a seat on the edge of Sombra’s bed and as Widowmaker chose to stand near the door, watching the two quietly. She waited for Sombra to finish what she was doing before speaking, taking the time to play around with comparing how different textures felt through her prosthetic hand versus her organic one. 

“Alright, Speedy, I think I’ve got it now.” Sombra announced, turning around in her chair to face her. 

“Really? Thought you said earlier that it might take a few more days on top of this.” Lena’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“That’s what I thought too until I found out the entire last chunk of these files that I had to go through were old memes. It seems Gabe just took everything off whatever computer he chose instead of going through and picking important files. Whoever it belonged to had  _ quite the obsession  _ with anime.” She said with a grin, lazily crossing one leg over the other and leaning back in her chair. 

“Old memes?” 

“The oldest, the dankest, you know, like ‘Nani the fuck?’.” Sombra said as if it explained everything, she rolled her eyes at Lena’s further look of confusion, “Don’t worry about it. The rest of the files aren’t important. All the good stuff is ready for me to send whenever you say you want it.” 

“What if I said ‘right now’?” Lena pursed her lips, anxiety starting to nip at the back of her mind. 

“Yeah, if you want me to. Could hold onto it until you were ready though.” Sombra seemed to sense whatever Lena was feeling about it, giving her options.

“No. Do it now, think it’ll be better to get it out of the way.” She dragged her hand through her hair, scratching at her scalp as she let out a slow sigh. Gabriel’s current state and anger towards Morrison was sitting at the front of her mind, they couldn’t delay this any further.

Sombra studied Lena’s face closely with her eyes for a moment before sitting forward again, taking a more serious tone and posture, “Okay. I’ll let you know when it’s done.” 

 

After staying up far too late to perform  _ thorough _ tests of her new prosthetic, Lena was sleeping soundly when she felt Widowmaker shaking her shoulders to wake her up. She groaned, opening one eye to look at her before squeezing it shut again to try go back to sleep. When Widowmaker shook her again, Lena forced her eyes open, propping herself up on her elbows to look at her.

“What is it?”

“I have some news that might interest you, cherie.” Widowmaker’s smile was warmer than she normally ever saw it, Lena could count the amount of times she’d seen that expression before on one hand, “Come with me.”

Lena sat up properly after seeking out a proper kiss from Widowmaker, slipping out of bed and finding her clothes from yesterday where she had tossed them on the floor. She let Widowmaker lead her by the hand out of their room and down the hall, heading towards the communal areas on the floors above. 

“Where are we going, luv?” Lena rubbed at her eyes, still feeling half asleep. 

“Just wait and see.” Widowmaker replied without even turning to look at her, giving her a quick squeeze of the hand in reassurance. 

She lead Lena into the rec room next to the cafeteria. Almost the entire team was waiting for them there, Sombra and Satya saddled together on one couch and Gabriel on the other. It was nice to see him out of his room even if he was still giving off dark, depressing vibes wherever he went. Winston stood out of the way beside the man Lena knew as Doomfist, only having met him a handful of times for missions and training sessions. It seemed only Moira had chosen not to meet hem here. 

Lena’s eyes moved towards where everyone’s attention seemed to be glued. They were watching a news broadcast on the holoscreen in the middle of the room. It displayed the ruins of the Overwatch HQ with the headline running along the bottom of the screen,  _ ‘Secret Files Leak - How Deep Did The Rot In Overwatch Go?’ _ . 

“They got the files then?” Lena asked, taking a seat on the arm of the couch Gabriel sat on. She already knew the answer, it was obvious enough. 

“Yeah, seems like they’ve already run away with the files I sent them. I didn’t even send them any specific clues to go with it but it looks as if they’ve gone through most of them, if not all and have figured out Jack Morrison is at the centre of a lot of it. A few others are getting the blame but not as much.” Sombra gave a small shrug of her shoulders, eyes flicking back and forth between Lena and the screen.

Lena nodded along as Sombra spoke, chewing at her bottom lip, “What’re they saying about Angie? Anything at all?”

Winston spoke up from behind her, “It looks like a lot of the responsibility will fall in her lap regardless of her level of involvement. Between Ana being dead, them believing Jack is dead and Gabriel being missing, there isn’t many from the old guard for them to pin the blame on. They will possibly hold depositions in New York at the UN. If they do, they’ll probably round up Dr Ziegler, possibly Reinhardt and Torbjörn. A few identifiable members of Blackwatch… Genji Shimada or Jesse McCree perhaps. It depends on how much information they get from what they were sent...” Winston let himself trail off after seeing Gabriel’s reaction to the mention of those names, diverting his attention back to the screen as the footage changed to that of Angela. 

She was trying to make her way out of what seemed to be an apartment building, most likely her own but being swarmed by the media trying to get her to answer questions. Everyone was curious to know exactly how involved Angela had been. Lena frowned, knowing that even if they go through all of the files Gabriel had provided, it wouldn’t show the exact truth. She figured there was a reason that Widowmaker seemed to hate Moira and from what Gabriel had told her, and she didn’t care for her much either but it seemed Angela wasn’t as innocent as either her or the files were claiming. 

Lena was torn by it all. She knew Angela must have known what was going on, whether she wanted to confess to it or not but that didn’t make it easy to separate that from the doctor she had known back at Overwatch. It didn’t seem to match her character. Then again, Lena had realised she didn’t seem to know her quite as well as she had previously thought after Angela had taken a moment of vulnerability to slip a tracker into her jacket.

Widowmaker seemed to sense her unease, a cool hand resting gently on her shoulder with her thumb rubbing soothingly at her back. Her eyes drifted to where Gabriel sat, his demeanour was an odd one that she hadn’t seen from him before but that was the new normal for him from these past few days. He seemed to be both pleased and angry with the news, knowing that Jack most likely has escaped any sort of consequences for his actions if he still lived like he assumed. Doomfist seemed to be amused by it all, his arms crossed against his chest with his lips twisted up into a light smirk. 

“What now, cherie?” Widowmaker murmured, having leaned in so only she could hear her voice.

“We started the fire,” Lena answered. “Now we watch it  _ burn. _ ”


	26. Old Friends

Lena carded her fingers through Widowmaker’s hair as she caught her breath, giggling a little as she felt lukewarm lips pressing kisses along her chest. Widowmaker’s cooler body temperature had grown on Lena as time went on, especially after sex when she felt overheated like this. She was also more than pleased to find out how much Widowmaker enjoyed to cuddle after, even if she’d kill Lena for saying it.

“Was it good, luv?”

Widowmaker looked up, the smirk on her lips turning into an unusually expressive frown, “What has happened to your eyes, chérie?”  

“What do you mean?” Lena’s brow furrowed.

“They are _red_.” Widowmaker sat back to let Lena make her way out of bed, scrambling towards the mirror on the wall nearby.

“ _Bloody hell_.” She said, spreading her eyelids as if to get a better view. Her irises had gone from their usual brown to a dark crimson.

Lena turned back to find Widowmaker desperately trying to get dressed, scrambling to grab clothes off the floor and struggling into them without her regular elegance. She watched on in silence for a few moments, trying to figure out why Widowmaker seemed to be more panicked about this than she was. Once Widowmaker was adequately dressed she moved onto snatching up Lena’s clothes and tossing them at her to catch.

“What’re you doing, luv?” Lena asked, already following the implied instruction to put them on.

“I have questions that need answering.” She replied curtly.

“Huh?” When Lena had finished getting dressed, Widowmaker’s hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her out the door, “Where’re you taking me?”

Widowmaker didn’t answer her questions, only leading her down the hall and into the elevator before pressing the basement buttons. The hand on her wrist slipped down her prosthetic arm and into her hand, squeezing Lena’s tightly. She could feel through Widowmaker’s touch that she was trembling even though her face was set in a calm, collected expression. Lena chose to let the silence remain, not pressing further with her questioning and just let Widowmaker take her where she was planning to go.

They ended up in the basement where all of the different labs were kept and it crossed her mind for a moment that Widowmaker might be taking her to see Winston until they passed his lab. She got more and more confused the closer they got to Moira’s lab at the end of the hallways. It surprised her that the lights were still on inside, the only people Lena knew who kept such ridiculous hours were Winston and Angela. Widowmaker pushed into the lab without knocking, finding Moira at a bench spreading out a collection of scalpels.

Moira looked up as they walked in, her expression practically unchanged by the intrusion as she held eye contact for a few moments before going back to her work. Widowmaker sat Lena down on one of the stools nearby and walked over to where Moira stood, her fists clenching.

“I’m working.”  

“What did you do to her?” Widowmaker growled, ignoring Moira’s statement. The venomous tone that she’d used last time she’d seen Moira returning quickly.

“What do you mean?” Moira asked casually, eyes quickly flicking up to look at Widowmaker before looking away again.

“What was in what you used on Lena? Her eyes have changed colour. What have you done?” Widowmaker gripped Moira’s wrists tightly, finally earning her full attention. Her stomach churned at both the sight of the smirk on Moira’s face and the realisation that one of Moira’s own eyes was a similar shade to Lena’s.

Moira removed her hand from Widowmaker’s grasp, walking past her and heading straight for where Lena sat. She fished a small torch out of her lab coat pocket and brought it up to shine it into Lena’s eyes, tilting her head back roughly and using her thumb to spread her eye lids. Somehow Lena wasn’t surprised by her rough bedside manner. Moira stared at her for a few seconds before turning the torch off, sliding it back in her pocket and stepping away. She made a curious noise at the back of her throat.

“What is it?” Lena asked, worry finally starting to set in.

“Aside from a minor pigmentation change, there seems to be nothing wrong from a first glance. I would need to perform other tests to be certain of the reason.” Moira drawled, seeming almost bored as she walked over to the bench where all her tools were laid out, picking up the needle necessary to draw blood.

“What are you doing? Widowmaker’s body was tense, her voice at a higher pitch than Lena had ever heard it.

“It’s a simple blood draw. It will allow me to find out the information you are looking for, so sit down and be patient while I work or I actually _will_ experiment on your little pet here.” Moira smirked at the way Lena huffed at her words and took a seat down on another stool, rolling it towards Lena as she took hold of her organic arm.

She twisted it to expose the inside of it, not bothering with a tourniquet as she pressed her thumb down in search of a vein. Moira pushed the needle in quickly, not giving Lena time to protest and beginning to fill up the sample tubes with it. It was over quickly, less than thirty seconds before Moira withdrew and took the samples further back into her lab, saying nothing to either of them.

Lena took hold of Widowmaker’s hand in hopes to try keep her calm as they waited, assuming that Moira was intending on returning sometime soon. At the twenty minute mark, not even physical contact from Lena was enough to calm Widowmaker’s frustration and she began to move towards where Moira had gone when the doctor finally emerged, tablet nestled under her arms as she walked.

“Feeling tense, are we?” Moira had an unsettling smirk on her face.

Widowmaker flinched, letting Moira push past her and back towards where Lena was sitting. Lena was almost as tense as Widowmaker after that brief exchange, knowing how much she seemed to hate Moira.

“Your cells are regenerating at an incredibly rapid pace. I need to do some more tests to determine why your eyes have changed colour, but it appears my experiment has worked after all. The treatment was meant to repair your arm while in surgery, but it seems it took some time for the changes to take effect.”

Widowmaker stared at her from where she stood, trying to make sense of what Moira had done. "But what does that _mean?_ "   
Moira gave them both a tight little smile. "This."   
Before either of them could react, Moira had seized one of the scalpels from her table and swung her hand in an arc that was almost too fast to follow, the razor sharp blade flashing across Lena's throat and leaving a neat slice that began to spray bright red arterial blood as Lena gave a ragged gasp, clutching at her wound.

Widowmaker watched as blood began to stream out between Lena’s fingers, running down the front of her body and being soaked up first by her shirt before hitting the ground beneath her stool. It took a few moments to process what Moira had just done before she closed the gap between them, forcing Moira backwards onto the table and knocking over most of her tools.

It didn’t take long for her hands to wrap themselves around Moira’s throat, squeezing down as hard as possible to cut off her air flow.

“You will never touch her again! You made me into what I am, isn’t that _enough_?!” Widowmaker shouted, her voice coming out in a near sob as emotion overwhelmed her.

Moira gasped for air underneath her palms, bringing both hands up to grip at her wrists and dig in her fingernails. She was closed to losing consciousness when she could barely hear Lena speaking up.

“ _Fuck_ … Warn someone before you do that… _Bloody hell, my shirt is ruined._ ”

Widowmaker’s hands loosened just enough to let Moira bring in a strangled breath as she turned back to look at where Lena was sitting. The entire front of her body and arms were covered in blood but the wound that Moira had inflicted with the scalpel across her neck had vanished, as if nothing had happened at all. Widowmaker let go entirely of Moira’s throat and climbed off the table, taking hold instead of both sides of Lena’s face. She examined her closely, not believing that Lena could be alright after such an injury.

“I’m alright.” Lena murmured.

Lena sucked in a sharp breath as Widowmaker brought her into a tight embrace, holding her against her chest with her fingers in her hair. Tears began to spill over, rolling down Widowmaker’s cheeks as she processed the fact that Lena was alive and uninjured. Lena had never seen Widowmaker react so quickly or so violently to anything. Her suspicions about what issue Widowmaker had with Moira had been confirmed by her words, even if she never spoke much about being turned into the Widowmaker, Lena knew it affected her a lot more than she liked to admit.

Moira making her way off the table and clearing her throat brought the two of them out of their thoughts, remembering who was here with them. Widowmaker took hold of Lena’s hand and dragged her out of the lab before she had the chance to lose control again. The last thing she heard before the door shut was Moira’s voice, almost glowing with dark amusement.

“You’re welcome.”

 

Sombra watched Gabriel - _Reaper_ \- from the corner of her eye. It would take a long time for her to get used to his new call sign, one that he’d insisted upon being referred to as in the field. She tried to return her focus back to the monitors in front of her, Reaper had come in here specifically for an update on her part of the search for Jack Morrison.

Since the Overwatch HQ explosion weeks ago, Reaper had been insisting that there was no way that Jack had died in the blast like the news seemed to be reporting. It took a week for Reaper to get himself together and begin his plan of attack, starting with ordering Sombra to run a program looking to match images of Jack to security and traffic camera footage around the world. In the meantime, he had been running small missions where he followed up on leads, possible sightings and theories that he had about where Jack might have fled to.

It was when Sombra was going to inform him for the _third_ time this week that she still had no matches and that there probably wasn’t going to be one that she finally did get one. Several images taken from multiple security cameras in Veracruz, Mexico were automatically pulled up onto her screen.

“Oi, Gab-Reaper. Finally got a match on your guy.” Sombra called him over with a matching flick of her hand.

He acknowledged her with a low grunt as he made his way over to her desk, leaning in closer to get a better look at the images. She cycled through them slowly to let him get a long enough look at all of them. Reaper’s upper body stiffened at the only image of Jack where he wasn’t alone. In the image he was speaking with someone of small stature, their body completely covered in navy tactical gear with a matching mask that had three blue lights in the centre forming a triangle, and a sniper rifle holstered over their shoulder.

“She’s alive.” He grumbled, beating his fist into the top of Sombra’s desk.

“Oi, pendejo, be careful!” Sombra shouted, trying to still everything on top of the desk, “This is _expensive_ equipment. What do you mean? Who’s alive?”

“Ana Amari.”  


Widowmaker made Lena sit on the edge of their bed as she took a wet cloth to her neck, face and hands, trying to get the worst of the blood off her skin. Once the front of Lena’s throat was free from blood, Widowmaker couldn’t help but run her thumb along where Moira had sliced her open with a scalpel, still struggling to process the idea that all of it had been real.

She helped Lena ease off her stained clothing, bunching it up in her hands and tossing it onto the tiled floor of the bathroom from where they were sitting. Lena sat there patiently in her underwear as Widowmaker cleaned her torso with the cloth before getting up to search through their shared wardrobe, grabbing her fresh clothes to wear.

“You know, I’m _really_ pissed off that my nice shirt was ruined. It was my favourite.” Lena pouted, helping Widowmaker slip the new pieces of clothing on.

Widowmaker could tell that Lena sensed how much Moira had rattled her and was trying in her own way to bring things back to normal. Even just the attempt was enough to bring a small smile to Widowmaker’s face. She tossed the now filthy cloth behind her, landing with a wet splat on top of Lena’s clothes, and reached up to cup Lena’s cheek, trying to soak in all possible physical contact that she could.

“We can replace your shirt later, chérie. For now, I am glad that you are alive.”

“Yeah, we can _but_ I miss it already. It was a nice shirt.” Lena smiled as Widowmaker huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes.

“Perhaps I have something for you then.” Widowmaker started as she headed back towards their wardrobe, removing a hoodie from its hanger and unzipping it as she returned to Lena’s side, “I know that you have been eyeing this since you first decided you were going to live in my room.”

Widowmaker brought the hoodie over Lena’s head, helping her slip her arms into it and pulling it down her torso. Lena grabbed the front of the hoodie and lifted it up to her nose, inhaling deeply with a look of bliss on her face. She watched her with an eyebrow raised, wondering exactly what Lena seemed to be doing with it.

“What? You smell nice. Your clothes smell nice ‘cause they smell like you.”

A knock at the door interrupted the moment between them, drawing their attention away from each other. Widowmaker’s eyebrows drew together, they weren’t expecting anyone and they still hadn’t been returned to full mission status just yet. She stood up and opened the door, finding Reaper standing on the other side.

“Ana Amari is alive.” He said, pushing his way inside the room.

“What do you mean? I shot her in the head through her scope. I watched her die myself. Are you doubting my abilities?” Widowmaker’s fist clenched, frustration bubbling up inside her. She already had enough to deal with today.

“I’m not doubting your abilities, I’m simply stating fact. Photos place her meeting with Jack Morrison in Veracruz, Mexico. Amari is a far more cunning woman than most people give her credit for, faking her own death is well within her capabilities. You most likely gave her the method to do it.”

“I see.” She said, anxiously pulling on her fingers, “What comes next?”

Reaper folded his arms against his chest, “Next, we take care of unfinished business.”

  

Angela nervously adjusted the neckline of her blouse, clutching on tightly to her tablet with her other hand. She’d watched the other depositions from her hotel room in the previous days as Reinhardt, Torbjorn, Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada were dragged over the coals one after the other. It made it worse to know she had been left for the last deposition, feeling a growing dread for whatever they went through would seem minor in comparison to what had been planned for her.

The members of the panel represented the nations of the current security council and every single representative was out to take advantage of the news cycle. Any harsh question that would leave Angela unable to answer would be seen as a success, generating enough attention in the newspapers and online that the politicians would be pleased with themselves. She suspected there wouldn’t be much in the way of consequences for the individual members of Overwatch still left standing, including herself. The council members would take the disbandment of the organisation and media attention garnered from picking over the corpse and leave them be. That thought did little to quell her anxiety.

At the mention of her name, Angela stood up from her seat in the front row, making her way up to the table set up directly in front of the panel. The lawyer she had hired was already waiting there for her. They had agreed that Angela would do her best to answer every question she was asked, deciding that being honest now would be better than facing the consequences if caught in a lie. She couldn’t be truly honest, not with what really happened, but she could answer based on the information in the files they had. The representative for the United States leaned in as she took her seat, beginning to speak into the microphone.

“I will be leading the questions today instead of the regular format of various panel members asking their own. So, to begin, please state your name for the record.”

She swallowed thickly, trying to clear the lump in her throat, “Doctor Angela Ziegler.”

“How long have you been employed by Overwatch and in which capacity?” He asked the moment she finished speaking.

“I was brought on to work in the medical division both as a physician and researcher six years ago in 2064. That eventually lead to being offered the position of the head of the medical division.”

“And in that time, did you work alongside Dr Moira O’Deorian in various research projects?”

Angela’s heart rate sped up, they weren’t planning to hold back even slightly it seemed, “Yes, I did.”

“Research projects that lead to the discovery of your nanobiotic technology?”

“Yes.”

“In that time, were you aware that Dr O’Deorian ran experiments on herself?”

“Yes, I was aware.” She clenched both of her fists on top of the table, knowing that this was going to be where these questions went didn’t make answering them any easier.

“And you failed to report that information to your superiors?”

“Yes.”  

“Not once did it cross your mind that Commander Jack Morrison, Gabriel Reyes or Captain Ana Amari should be aware of what Dr O’Deorian was doing?”

“It crossed my mind. The fact that many relied on the technology getting results quickly _also_ crossed my mind.” Angela retorted, doing her best to toe the line as her lawyer had recommended but also wanting to defend herself.

“I see. Were you also aware of Dr O’Deorian beginning experiments on other subjects without approval?”

“I did become aware of that, yes.”

“Was it before or after those subjects became unwilling that you finally informed your superiors?”

“Before.” She lied. Angela knew that Jack had adjusted the dates of memos sent around Overwatch about Moira’s experiments.

“Which superiors did you inform?” He asked, shifting the papers in front of him.

“I sent a direct memo to Commander Jack Morrison. At that time, the man who ran Blackwatch,  Gabriel Reyes was aware of the experiments as he was a subject himself. I left it to Morrison to inform Captain Amari.”

“And from your best recollection, what happened once he received and acknowledged that memo?”

“He dismissed Dr O’Deorian from her position within Overwatch. As far as I am aware, Gabriel Reyes brought her on to work within Blackwatch as he was given discretion to recruit whoever he wished. From there I believe both he and Dr O’Deorian parted ways from Blackwatch and joined forces with the terrorist group known as Talon.”

“The technology derived from those human experimentations is your nanobiotic technology, yes?”

“I… Um… Only in the loosest sense-”

“Just answer a yes or no to these questions, doctor. As far as I am aware, you make a profit from the use of your technology in hospitals around the world. Do you believe it is right for you to profit from the use of technology brought about by human rights violations?”

“I - Well, you see… That’s not quite-” Angela stammered, unable to answer such a question.  

Her lawyer cut her off, trying to save her from drowning too much, “Those are all the questions that Dr Ziegler is comfortable with answering today. Unless you plan to lay any charges or make an arrest of some kind, we will be on our way.” She coaxed Angela into standing up from her chair, guiding her away from the panel as they walked, denying the representative the chance to continue their line of questioning.

As Angela was guided out, her eyes scanned the rows of seats that held the audience, making direct eye contact with a woman she recognised. It was Lena Oxton. She could see that they had replaced Lena’s right arm with a hard light prosthetic and her eyes were now a crimson colour, much like one of Moira’s. The corner of her mouth twitched up into a smirk as she saw Angela had noticed her, standing up herself.

Lena spoke as they walked past her, “So what kind of damage did you cause, _Doctor?_ ”  

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to thank everyone who's attempted to help me with my situation such as tomcat, fuckyatta, faharathevoo, zeroinvador and others plus those who've helped me anonymously. I can't express how grateful I am for that.
> 
> As I put in my previous chapter, I've hit a really hard financial spot at the moment and I'm looking for all the help I can get, really, you can find out more about my situation and how to help out here https://twoheartedalien2-0.tumblr.com/post/167469043794/financial-hardship
> 
> No obligation to help but a reblog, kudos and sharing my fics would go along way if you can't spare any money at the moment! Thanks for reading :D


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